PPMI | Part of the Verian Group, together with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), has completed the external study supporting the European Commission's evaluation of the European Chips Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/1781) and the accompanying impact assessment for the Chips Act 2.0. Semiconductors underpin virtually every sector of the modern economy and Europe's capacity to design and produce them domestically has become a central question for the continent's sovereignty.
The Chips Act, which entered into force in September 2023, represents the EU's first coordinated response to semiconductor supply chain vulnerabilities, structured across three pillars: the Chips for Europe Initiative (Pillar I), security of supply and the first-of-a-kind (FOAK) framework (Pillar II), and monitoring and crisis response (Pillar III). In accordance with Article 40 of the Regulation, the Commission was required to submit an evaluation report to the European Parliament and the Council by September 2026.
The evaluation, which ran from September 2025 to April 2026, provided the Commission with a robust, evidence-based assessment of the Chips Act across all five evaluation criteria – effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence, and EU added value – covering the period from the Act's entry into force through November 2025. The methodology combined desk research with an extensive stakeholder consultation programme, including targeted surveys across four stakeholder groups, expert interviews, thematic workshops, case studies, and a cost-benefit analysis.
The evaluation found that Pillar I had made meaningful progress in building Europe's research and innovation capacity, while implementation of Pillar II was slower than anticipated, with FOAK uptake limited by procedural complexity and lengthy approval timelines. Pillar III mechanisms were still at an early stage at the time of assessment. Stakeholders broadly regarded the Chips Act as a timely and necessary intervention, while reinforcement – particularly in demand-side measures and administrative efficiency – was identified as necessary going forward.
Alongside the evaluation, the team supported the Commission in developing the impact assessment for the Chips Act 2.0. Both workstreams contributed to the highly anticipated Chips Act 2.0 proposal, put forward by the Commission on 3 June 2026.
