The EU Chips Act & Technological Sovereignty

Robert Troy TD is the Minister of State with responsibility for Trade Promotion, Digital, & Company Regulation at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. He was appointed to this role in July 2020.

He is the Fianna Fáil TD for Longford/Westmeath, elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt in the February 2011 general election and has been re-elected in both the 2016 & 2020 general elections.

Before entering the Dáil he served for seven years as an elected member of Westmeath County Council.

He has been a Frontbench party Spokesperson since his election to Dáil Éireann. His various briefs have covered Arts & Heritage, Children & Youth Affairs, Transport, Tourism & Sport and most recently Business, Enterprise & Innovation. He has served on the Oireachtas Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation. He was also a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport. For the past three years he has also been a member of the Council of Europe and during this time has spoken in this forum on a range of social issues.

Ms Lucilla Sioli is the Director for “Artificial Intelligence and Digital Industry” within Directorate-General CONNECT at the European Commission. She is responsible for the coordination of the European digitisation of industry strategy and for policy development in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors. The directorate also supports R&D&I in key digital industrial technologies including microelectronics, photonics, robotics, and AI. Lucilla holds a PhD in economics from the University of Southampton (UK) and one from the Catholic University of Milan (Italy) and has been a civil servant with the European Commission since 1997.

Paul Adamson is chairman of Forum Europe and Forum Global and founder of Encompass an online magazine and discussion space dedicated to covering the European Union and the UK’s place in the world. He is also the chairman of the EU-UK Forum and a member of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations..

Paul is a member of the Centre for European Reform’s advisory board and Rand Europe’s Council of Advisors. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College London, a Senior Adviser at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey. He is a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2012, Paul was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to promoting understanding of the European Union” and in 2016 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.

CNECT A3 is responsible for development, coordination and implementation of research and industrial policy in semiconductor technologies. The unit has recently led the preparation of the proposal for a European Chips Act in collaboration with CNECT A2 who prepared the legal part of the proposal.

The unit oversees the Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking, the Photonics Public Private Partnership and Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) in the domain.

Colette has held a number of management positions in the Commission. Before joining the Commission she worked at Dartmouth College, USA and Ciba in Switzerland. She has a BSc in Physics and Mathematics (summa cum laude) and a PhD in Physics  from Trinity College Dublin.

Eva Kaili is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), part of the Hellenic S&D Delegation since 2014.

In January 2022, she was elected as Vice-President of the European Parliament for the second half of the 9th legislature. Her responsibilities include the Parliament’s ICT Innovation Strategy, Informatics & Telecommunications, European Strategy and Policy Analysis System, Corporate Social Responsibility, and replacing the President for multilateral bodies, including the UN and the WTO.

Eva is the first woman to chair the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence (C4AI). She is a Member of the Committees on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), Budgets (BUDG), and the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA).

Eva has worked intensively on promoting innovation as a driving force of the European Digital Single Market. She has been the draftsperson of legislation in the fields of blockchain technology, online platforms, big data, fintech, AI, cybersecurity, as well as EFSI2 and the InvestEU programme.

She is also a member of the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (DACP), the delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula (DARP), and the delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (DNAT).

Prior to her election as MEP, she was a Member of the Greek Parliament (2007-2012). Before her political career, she worked as a journalist and newscaster.

Eva holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Civil Engineering, and a postgraduate degree in International and European Affairs.

Ilias Chantzos is the Global Privacy Officer and the Head of Government Affairs programmes for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) of Broadcom. Chantzos leads the global privacy program of Broadcom across the company’s multiple business units and regions. He also represents Broadcom before government bodies, national authorities and international organisations in EMEA advising on public policy issues.

Before joining Broadcom Chantzos spent almost 16 years in various government affairs and legal roles in Symantec. During his last post with the Symantec he was in charge of the Government Affairs for the EMEA and the Asia Pacific Japan regions and the Global Advisor for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Privacy.

Before joining Symantec in 2004, Chantzos worked as legal and policy officer in the Directorate General Information Society of the European Commission focusing on information security policy. He covered the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention and the Framework Decision on Attacks against Information Systems. In addition, he worked on a number of EU legislative initiatives relevant to information society and security, including directives on Privacy on Electronic Communications, the Data Retention Directive and the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). He also represented the European Commission in various international debates and conferences.

Chantzos holds a law degree from the Aristotle University, a Master degree in Computers and Communication Law from Queen Mary College, University of London and a Master in Business Administration from Solvay Business School. He has also completed executive education at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and at the JFK School of Government in Harvard. Chantzos is member of the Athens Bar Association. He served as Chairman of the Executive Board of TechAmerica Europe. He also served for four terms as Chairman of the European Policy Council of Business Software Alliance (BSA). He has represented Symantec at the NATO Industry Cooperation Platform and he has been a member of the Advisory Board of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) from 2006 until 2020. He is also a member of Europol’s European Cybercrime Center (EC3) Advisory Board. Chantzos is a member of the Young Global Leaders 2014 class of the World Economic Forum. He speaks English, Greek, Dutch and German.

Lars Reger is executive vice president and chief technology officer of NXP Semiconductors. As CTO, Lars is responsible for managing new business activities and R&D in the focus markets of automotive, industry 4.0., internet of things (IoT), mobile, and connectivity &
infrastructure.

Before joining NXP, Lars gained deep insight into the microelectronics industry with a focus on the automotive sector. He began his career with Siemens Semiconductors as product engineer in 1997. His past roles at Infineon included head of the process and product engineering departments, project manager for mobile system chips, and director of IP management. Prior to joining NXP as head of automotive strategy in 2008, he was responsible for business development and product management within the connectivity business unit at Continental. In December 2018, Lars was appointed CTO and has since then been responsible for the overall technology portfolio of NXP. Since April 2019, he has been a board member of the committee for digital economy, telecommunications and media in the German Industry Association. Lars is also on the board of directors of ITS World Congress and a member of the Forbes Technology Council. Lars earned a degree in physics from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn and an MBA from London Business School.

Paul Adamson is chairman of Forum Europe and Forum Global and founder of Encompass an online magazine and discussion space dedicated to covering the European Union and the UK’s place in the world. He is also the chairman of the EU-UK Forum and a member of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations..

Paul is a member of the Centre for European Reform’s advisory board and Rand Europe’s Council of Advisors. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College London, a Senior Adviser at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey. He is a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2012, Paul was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to promoting understanding of the European Union” and in 2016 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.

Eva Maydell (Paunova) is a second-term Member of the European Parliament within the European People’s Party (EPP) Group, representing the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB). She is a Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee. She is also a Vice-Chair of the Delegation for relations with Japan and substitute member in the Delegation for relations with the US. Until her election, she was Executive Coordinator of the GERB-EPP Delegation and Senior Policy Advisor in the European Parliament. MEP Maydell’s key interests include innovation & digitalisation, investments, SMEs & entrepreneurship and education.

Peter has been working in the European Commission for more than 20 years with positions in environment, enlargement negotiations, industry policy, innovation and research. He was a Cabinet member of Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Head of Cabinet of the Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik. 

Since 2010 he is at Directorate-General Research and Innovation where he was first responsible for Innovation then for Industrial Technologies. Following the re-orientation of DG Research and Innovation towards sustainability, his competences have been enlarged to include industrial R&I agendas and business intelligence as well as knowledge valorisation policies. 

Before joining the European Commission in 1991, Peter worked as a lawyer in a German law firm. Peter is a lawyer by training with a doctorate degree in German constitutional law and European law. 

Jo De Boeck received his engineering degree in 1986 and his PhD degree in 1991 from the University of Leuven. Since 1991 he is a staff member of imec (Leuven). He has been a NATO Science Fellow at Bellcore (USA, 1991-92) and AST-fellow in the Joint Research Center for Atom Technology (Japan, 1998). In his research career, he has been leading activities on integration of novel materials at device level and new functionalities at systems level. In 2003 he became Vice President at IMEC for the Microsystems division and in 2005 started Holst Centre (Eindhoven), an open innovation initiative by imec and TNO. He currently is Managing Director of imec’s activities in The Netherlands.  From 2010 he headed imec’s Smart Systems and Energy Technology Business Unit. He is part-time professor at the Engineering department of the KU Leuven and held a visiting professorship at the TU Delft, Kavli Institute for Nanoscience (2003–2016). In 2011 he became Chief Technology Officer and in 2018 he was appointed Chief Strategy Officer. He is member of imec’s Executive Board.  His passion and professional focus are on innovation. In his current role he manages the internal imec.invest portfolio looking at impactful new R&D tracks, heads the imec Venture and spin-off activities and supports the long term strategy through funded projects, investment in talent and strategic academic relationships.

Lars Montelius is the Director–General of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory since the 1st September 2014.

Professor in Nanotechnology at Lund University, Sweden, Lars Montelius is the founder of several Swedish companies working with nanotechnology.

Lars Montelius is also the President of the IUVSTA: The International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications www.iuvsta-us.org  with more than 150 000 members from 32 countries, member of the EC Executive High Level Group (HLG) at DG NMPB, and board member and Working Group Chair of the two European Technology Platforms NANOFutures: The European initiative for sustainable development by 

Nanotechnologies www.nanofutures.eu and EuMat: The European Technology Platform for Advanced Engineering Materials and Technologies: eumat.eu.

Between 2003 and 2009, Lars Montelius was Dean of the Physics Department, Science and Engineering Faculties at Lund University and between 2009 and 2011, he was director for Øresund University & Øresund Science Region, a cross-border cooperation between eleven universities and three regional authorities of two countries in the Øresund Region.

Lars Montelius was also Chair of the Swedish Technical Standardization Committee on Nanotechnology from 2007 to 2014.

In charge of Sustainable Development and External Affairs since 2010, Jean-Luc di Paola-Galloni joined Valeo in 2006 as CEO’s delegate, member of the executive committee.

Since January 2010, he is also the Valeo member to selection and investment committee of the Fonds Avenir Automobile (FAA), belonging to the French state owned Banque Publique d’Investissement (BPI).

Very active in the EU research and innovation related associations and organisation, Jean-Luc di Paola-Galloni is operational Vice-Chairman in the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC), Vice-Chairman in EGVIAfor2Zero, the association engaged with the European Commission in the 2Zero partnership, Member of the Steering and Board of CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, President of Private (Beneficiary) Members Board in the EU Joint Undertaking ECSEL (Electronic Components and Systems) and president of INSIDE (European Intelligent and Embedded Systems Industry association).

His commitment to establish fair relationships between the automotive industry and international bodies, with a multi-stakeholder approach is also reflected by his commitment to advise the International Forum of OECD Transport Ministers from the beginning (2008) and to the Global Council of Automotive Industry of the World Economic Forum since its creation (2010).

He was previously advisor to the CEO of Gaz de France (2002-2004) and has a research experience in the field of defence, international relations and strategic affairs at Harvard University (Olin Institute, Weatherhead Center), Ecole Normale Supérieure and Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (French War College).

Friederike Berfelde is a member of Brunswick’s Global TMT Sector Group and specializes in EU public affairs and communications for clients in the industry. She also focuses on competition issues.

Miapetra Kumpula-Natri is a MEP representing Finland and the S&D Group. Kumpula-Natri is the first vice-chair of the Artificial Intelligence in digital age (AIDA) special committee, member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy  (ITRE) and a substitute of the Committees on International Trade (INTA) and on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO). For 11 years, Miapetra was a member of the Finnish Parliament.  

Miapetra is eager to find sustainable solutions to climate change and Energy sector and she is looking for more investments in research, knowledge and fair working life through the European cooperation. Digitalization, data economy, artificial intelligence and teleoperation markets are close to her heart, and in the European Parliament she is also known as “Madame Roaming” and “Digi-MEP”. Among other responsibilities, she is at the moment the rapporteur for the European Parliament own initiative report on data strategy, ITRE shadow for the Data Governance act and standing rapporteur for the WTO e-commerce negotiations. 

Sarah is Manager Government Affairs EMEA at Qualcomm. Her main activities focus on industrial policies in Europe. She joined Qualcomm in 2020 after working at the consultancy Burson Cohn & Wolfe and the Council of the European Union. She holds postgraduate degrees in European Affairs from Leiden University and the University of Geneva. Sarah is based out of Brussels with regular back-and-forth to Pa

Damien Levie currently heads the team “Technology & Security, FDI Screening” in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission.

The team manages the first EU-wide coordination mechanism among EU Member States in the field of screening of foreign direct investment. The Team also develops policies in areas at the intersection of international trade, high-tech and security with a view to contributing to the EU’s prosperity, strategic autonomy and security. These comprise EU dual-use export controls, including in the field of Russia / Belarus trade sanctions, and the EU framework for screening of foreign direct investment into the EU. The team acts as a DG TRADE focal point on high tech & trade-related matters in areas such as semiconductors, and large civilian aircraft. Damien heads the EU delegation in the “Government/Authorities Meetings on Semiconductors” which is a six-party forum for government/authorities in relation to semiconductors.

Damien previously headed the Trade Policy Evaluation and Transparency Teams.

He was a senior EU trade diplomat (Minister Counsellor) in Washington DC from 2014 to 2018, and helped manage the economic relations with the USA under Presidents Obama and Trump. From 2012 to 2014: he was the EU deputy-chief negotiator for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the USA.

Before working fulltime on EU-US trade, he was a senior adviser in the Cabinet of EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and a member of the Cabinet of Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for external relations with ACP countries and Development Policy.

Damien Levie has law degrees from KU Leuven and the University of Chicago Law School and an Economics degree from UC Louvain. He was a lawyer at a major US law firm in Brussels and New York from 1994 to 2001.

Andreas Kopp is a Senior Research Fellow at CEPS. He co-leads the GRID unit. He is also permanent member of the Investment Committee of the InvestEU Funnd and board member of the Supervisory Board of the EIT Urban Mobility (Barcelona).

Expert in public policy analysis and economic development. He has done public policy research for more than 20 years for the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the OECD, the World Bank and the European Commission. He has a particular interest in better regulation, analysis of environmental and climate policies and their impact on economic growth, with more than 15 years of research experience. He has developed innovative methods to evaluate economic integration and agglomeration economies. He has worked with numerous national governments to public investment to increase economic growth.

Through his work for the Regulatory Scrutiny Board for 4 years he has earned in-depth knowledge on the functioning of EU institutions across all areas of EU policies. He was responsible for the quality control of impact assessments, fitness checks and evaluations of all Directorates General. He cooperated on ex ante and ex post policy control the research service of the European Parliament and the European Council. He is part of a network with national and sub-national entities in EU and non-EU countries.

He was co-author of World Development Reports on the impact of economic geography and climate change and economic development. He developed new instruments to include external costs into policy analysis and project evaluation at the World Bank. He developed the research basis for policy initiatives of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport at the OECD, serving the reduction of external costs and economic integration.

Andreas has extensive experience in data collection and analysis. He has done econometric work on the productivity effects of public investment, the trade and agglomeration effects of reduced trade costs. He has cooperated with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission on how to increase quantification in impact assessments and evaluations. He masters using current software tools in econometrics, data analysis and machine learning.

Andreas was a Postdoc researcher at the Economics Department of the University of California at Berkeley. He did PhD studies in economics at the European University Institute (Florence) and the University of Giessen. He earned a PhD in economics, summa cum laude.

His native language is German. He is fluent in English and speaks French and Italian. He has some knowledge of Spanish.

Will Parker, Director Public Affairs

Will Parker leads SEC Newgate EU’s public affairs and policy team, he has over 20 years of experience in EU and European Government relations. His previous experience includes leading Dell Technologies government affairs team in the EMEA region liaising on behalf of the company with the EU institutions and national governments around the region. In addition to leading the GA team in the EMEA region Will also worked on policies relating to cloud computing as well as working on data protection regulation. In addition to this work he supported the UK business with their high level engagement with government and has worked with Dell’s leadership in Ireland, the Nordics and France. Will was Chief Sherpa as Chair of the AmchamEU’s Executive Council. Prior to joining SEC Newgate Will worked on tech clients at another consultancy. Will studied Spanish and Politics at Manchester University. In his spare time Will is a keen cyclist, he is married with two children.