BRUSSELS — A senior executive from semiconductor champion ASML slammed the EU for being inaccessible to Europe’s companies during POLITICO’s Competitive Europe summit in Brussels on Wednesday.
When asked if he felt the company had sufficient access to top European policymakers such as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Frank Heemskerk, executive vice president of global public affairs at ASML, said: “It’s not always easy.”
“It’s easier to get a meeting in the White House with a senior official than to get a meeting with a commissioner,” he added, quoting a previous company executive.
The comment came after Heemskerk revealed ASML’s CEO Christophe Fouquet had a 2-hour meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “After an hour and a half of listening, he [Modi] said you’re too friendly, tell me what we can do better,” said Heemskerk.
European policymakers would do well to take note, according to the ASML executive: “The political leaders should sit down with the companies that are investing money.”
He also commented on ASML’s recent €1.3 billion deal with French artificial intelligence company Mistral, which was seen as a major boost for Europe’s bid to be more technologically sovereign.
“Of course it’s easier that it’s a European company, it is easier to understand each other,” he said. But the reason the two companies are teaming up is “because of the focus of Mistral on industrial AI,” he said.
“It’s much more an industrial AI focus than anything around geopolitics,” he said.
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