BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - State leaders have demanded more speed from the EU Commission in demand projects of future technologies. Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) said Monday in Berlin that the EU needs a different "approach." Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), head of the Baden-Württemberg government, said important demand projects must come faster and should not be so costly. The EU is competing with the U.S. and China, he said. The president of the Federation of German Industries, Siegfried Russwurm, said two years of approval time is clearly too long.

In the course of an important joint European project (IPCEI) on microelectronics, 31 German projects from eleven German states are to be supported with a total of about four billion euros, as already announced. These include projects by Infineon and Bosch. 70 percent of the demand will be provided by federal funds - 30 percent by the eleven participating federal states in which the companies are implementing their projects. Approval from the EU Commission is required for this. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the companies are investing a total of ten billion euros, for example in production facilities, manufacturing plants and the development of new types of semiconductor chips.

Not on the list, because it is a different claim pot, are billion-dollar subsidies for planned investments by U.S. chipmaker Intel in Magdeburg and Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC in Dresden. The subsidies had been criticized by small and medium-sized businesses, among others.

Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said that subsidies are always the last resort in a market economy. The semiconductor industry, however, is one of the key sectors of the future and one of the pillars of Germany's future as an industrial location. Habeck referred to existing dependencies and the EU's goal of doubling its global market share to 20 percent. He said the industry should be brought back home to Europe and Germany.

The EU had approved the billion-euro aid program in June. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager had described microchips as the backbone of the economy, saying Europe needed to increase its own capabilities here. This is the second major microelectronics offensive by the EU, which had already approved a similar program in 2018./hoe/DP/stw