Pillar III of the European Chips Act establishes a coordination mechanism between the Member States and the Commission to strengthen collaboration on monitoring and crisis response.
Overview of Pillar III coordination mechanism
Monitoring
- Strategic mapping
- Early-warning indicators
- Key market actors
- Risk mitigation
Crisis response
- Activation of the crisis stage
- Emergency toolbox
- Information gathering
- Priority-rated orders
- Common purchasing
Governance
- European Semiconductor Board
Monitoring activities
The Commission, in consultation with the European Semiconductor Board, regularly monitors the semiconductor value chain to identify possible disruptions.
This monitoring foresees:
- A strategic mapping of the EU’s semiconductor sector, including for example key products and critical infrastructures, main user industries and key segments of the semiconductor supply chain as well as dependencies on third countries and skill needs;
- A monitoring of early warning indicators resulting from the strategic mapping;
- Member States’ reporting on the state of activities of key market actors in their territory;
- Best practices for preventive risk mitigation and increased transparency in the semiconductor sector.
First monitoring exercises already started as part of the activities of the European Semiconductor Expert Group, whose efforts will be continued by the European Semiconductor Board.
The monitoring will make use of existing custom datasets and tools, including SCAN (Supply Chain Alert Notification), which relies on a set of indicators able to assess EU dependency and short term fluctuations in imports for a set of goods related to the semiconductors supply chain. Preliminary evidence for a set of 74 traded products is presented in the Study "Applying the SCAN methodology to the Semiconductor Supply Chain".
Moreover, a semiconductor alert system was set up to allow stakeholders to report semiconductor supply chain disruptions.
Crisis stage and emergency toolbox
In front of evidence of serious disruptions in the semiconductors value chain, preventing the supply, repair and maintenance of essential products used by critical sectors, the crisis stage should be triggered. During the crisis stage, the Commission intensifies the coordination with the European Semiconductor Board and can decide to enact one or more of the following emergency tools:
Information gathering
Mandatory requests to provide the Commission with information that is necessary to assess the nature of a shortage or identify mitigation measures.
Common purchasing
The Commission acts as central purchasing body on behalf of Member States to procure products for critical sectors.
Priority rated orders (PROs)
Obligation for certain manufacturers to accept and prioritize orders to supply to critical sectors, subject to strict conditions and safeguards.
Critical sectors are considered: energy; transport; banking; financial market infrastructure; health; drinking water; waste water; digital infrastructure; public administration; space; production, processing and distribution of food; defence; security.
The European Semiconductor Board
The governance mechanism of the European Chips Act is ensured by the European Semiconductor Board (ESB), which includes representatives of the Member States and is chaired by the Commission. These are listed in the Register of Commission Expert Groups and Other Similar Entities
The Board builds up on the work initiated by the European Semiconductor Expert Group established by the Commission Recommendation 2022/210.
The ESB provides the Commission with advice, assistance, and recommendations across the three Pillars of action:
- It advices on the Initiative to the Public Authorities Board of the Chips Joint Undertaking (Pillar I);
- It is consulted for the decisions of the Commission to grant the status of IPF and OEF (Pillar II);
- It is responsible for the monitoring and crisis response activities mentioned on this page (Pillar III).