"long shot", a senior government official said on Thursday, as the bloc courts Taiwanese chip firms to build factories on the continent.
The EU has been courting Taiwan, a major chip producer, as a"like-minded" partner it would like to work with under the European Chips Act to encourage more semiconductor production in Europe and lessen dependence on Asia, despite the lack of formal ties with the Chinese-claimed island. "In that regard of course we have long been promoting a bilateral investment agreement between the EU and Taiwan. However, we know that's a long shot," said Chen, who visited the European Commission in June.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, the world's largest contract chipmaker, announced last month a 3.5 billion euro investment in Germany for the company's first factory in Europe.