European high-performance computing joint undertaking

Briefing 31-10-2018

Following a declaration made by seven EU Member States in March 2017, the European Commission adopted a proposal to establish a joint undertaking for high-performance computing (HPC) under Article 187 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) on 11 January 2018. The proposed regulation would establish the joint undertaking for the period to 31 December 2026, and provide it with €486 million in EU funds from the Horizon 2020 and Connecting Europe Facility programmes as well as an equivalent contribution from the participating countries. The joint undertaking would be charged with the joint procurement of two pre-exascale supercomputers for the Union. It would also implement an HPC research and innovation programme to support the European HPC ecosystem in developing technologies to reach exascale performance by 2022-2023. The European Parliament, adopted its opinion during the July 2018 plenary session, and the Council adopted the text on 28 September 2018. The Council Regulation was published in the Official Journal of 8 October and entered into force on 28 October 2018. Third edition of a Briefing originally drafted by Vincent Reillon. The 'EU Legislation in Progress' briefings are updated at key stages throughout the legislative procedure.