European Union countries and lawmakers are expected to give the green light to a 43 billion euro ($47 billion) plan that will help its semiconductor industry catch up with Asia and the United States, Reuters reported today.

The EU’s Chips Act was announced last year, as countries in the region determined to reduce their reliance on U.S. and Asian semiconductor makers in the wake of global supply problems stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The mass shortage of chips from 2020 to 2021 crippled a number of European businesses, including carmakers and manufacturers.

The goal of the new legislation is to boost the EU’s global share of semiconductor manufacturing to 20% over the next decade. The move comes in the wake of the U.S. CHIPS for America Act, which was designed to boost that country’s own chipmaking industry.

Talks over the European Chips Act have been ongoing for several months, and it’s expected that EU nations and lawmakers will finally agree on its funding details when they meet at the European Parliament’s monthly session in Strasbourg, France, in April 18.

According to people with direct knowledge of the matter, talks are focused on a 400 million euro funding shortfall. However, Reuters said the EU executive branch has managed to source the bulk of these funds.

The European Commission, which first proposed the Chips Act, originally only wanted to provide funding for the most cutting-edge chip plants that made advanced semiconductors. However, EU governments have successfully argued that the scope of the Chips Act should be expanded to cover the entire chip value chain, with new manufacturing facilities for older semiconductors and also research and design centers.

Proponents of the wider scope cited the success of Belgium’s Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, which has become a leading global innovation hub for nanoelectronics and other digital technologies, as a key reason to expand funding for European chip research. IMEC has reportedly built up an ecosystem of more than 600 organizations.

The additional funding will also help soothe the disappointment of smaller EU nations, which may have felt left out by Intel Corp.’s decision to build a new chip fabrication plant in Magdeburg, Germany, with funding from the Chips Act.

The Dutch semiconductor contract manufacturer STMicroelectronics N.V. has also announced plans to partner with U.S. firm GlobalFoundries Inc. on a new, 6.7 billion euro chip factory in France that will also draw on European funding.

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