{"id":2262,"date":"2026-07-01T12:18:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/?p=2262"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:19:50","slug":"get-familiar-with-eu-networks-esra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/get-familiar-with-eu-networks-esra\/","title":{"rendered":"Get familiar with EU Networks: ESRA\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I<em>n the \u201cGet familiar with EU Networks\u201d article series, it is the turn of the\u00a0<strong>European Semiconductor Regions Alliance, or ESRA<\/strong>. The network brings together European regions that have\u00a0established\u00a0activities in the semiconductor field, for example in semiconductor manufacturing or research. The aim of the network is to increase the impact and visibility of the European semiconductor sector, as well as to support the economic development and competitiveness of its member regions and Europe. ESRA is\u00a0a very important\u00a0network for the Tampere\u00a0Region\u00a0EU Office as well as for the entire semiconductor sector in\u00a0Pirkanmaa. The EU Office has been\u00a0very active\u00a0in the network for years and has achieved an excellent reputation within the network as well as in Brussels in the semiconductor field. In addition,\u00a0Pirkanmaa\u00a0is currently part of the network\u2019s presidency and will serve as the chair in 2027.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can read more about the ESRA network on the&nbsp;alliance\u2019s&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esra-org.eu\/#regions\">website<\/a><\/strong>!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The core of ESRA\u2019s activities is regions and EU offices<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ESRA is not an official&nbsp;organisation&nbsp;of the European Union, but a cooperation platform and working forum&nbsp;established&nbsp;in 2023, whose activities and funding are based on the voluntary participation and own resources of its members. The network is coordinated by a presidency consisting of three regions, which currently includes&nbsp;Pirkanmaa&nbsp;together with the regions of Catalonia and Piemonte.&nbsp;Pirkanmaa&nbsp;will act as the chair of the network in 2027 and is also one of the founding members of the network.&nbsp;At the moment, 40 regions from 13 different European countries participate in ESRA\u2019s activities.&nbsp;From Finland, three regions traditionally active in the semiconductor sector,&nbsp;Pirkanmaa, Northern Ostrobothnia, and Uusimaa are involved.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The activities of the network consist of political-level events, the work of the so-called Sherpa group composed of experts, and meetings of the core group in Brussels. Political-level events are typically&nbsp;organised&nbsp;about twice a year. The chairing region&nbsp;organises&nbsp;the annual general assembly, and the&nbsp;next&nbsp;chairing region&nbsp;organises&nbsp;the handover event towards the end of the year. The Sherpa group meets approximately six times a year. The task of the group is to implement the alliance\u2019s political&nbsp;objectives, prepare responses to key legislative initiatives, and update the alliance\u2019s key policy documents when necessary. The core group in Brussels, consisting of regional offices and carrying out advocacy work, is in contact with the European Commission and legislators, shares and&nbsp;disseminates&nbsp;relevant&nbsp;information, and meets about five times a year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Objectives and focus areas of the activities<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main&nbsp;objective&nbsp;of the network is to develop the growth and competitiveness of the entire European semiconductor sector. Due to its regional nature, the network has&nbsp;a very significant&nbsp;role specifically in bringing the regional perspective into European-level discussions and in strengthening the industry and competitiveness of its member regions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The semiconductor sector is currently highly significant for Europe and the EU. Semiconductors will be at the&nbsp;centre&nbsp;of&nbsp;almost all&nbsp;future technologies and are therefore critical, for example, for the EU\u2019s&nbsp;objectives&nbsp;in competitiveness and strategic autonomy. ESRA&nbsp;seeks&nbsp;to influence this development in its&nbsp;activities&nbsp;particularly through its legislative work. In its work, the network acts as an active partner during the preparation of the European Commission\u2019s legislative proposals, particularly&nbsp;bringing the regional perspective into the shaping of these proposals. A good example of the activities is the recently published proposal for the Commission\u2019s new semiconductor regulation (Chips Act 2.0), in which regions have been&nbsp;recognised&nbsp;in a significant way as the baseline for Europe\u2019s semiconductor industry, production, and research.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Chips Act 2.0, ESRA and&nbsp;Pirkanmaa<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Chips Act 2.0, the year 2027 will be&nbsp;very significant&nbsp;for ESRA. The&nbsp;finalisation&nbsp;of the legislation and its&nbsp;subsequent&nbsp;implementation will highlight the themes important to the network. For example, the importance of best practices, regional cooperation, and research activities will be&nbsp;emphasised&nbsp;in this significant phase of change for the sector. In addition to ESRA, 2027 will also be an important year for&nbsp;Pirkanmaa.&nbsp;Pirkanmaa&nbsp;will lead the work of the network&nbsp;during&nbsp;a year that is highly significant for the network and the entire sector.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"507\" height=\"339\" data-src=\"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2263 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-5.png 507w, https:\/\/tampere.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-5-300x201.png 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 507px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 507\/339;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Network work at the General Assembly in Brussels<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>You can read about the ESRA annual meeting on our&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/esra-semiconductor-alliance-annual-meeting-coincided-with-the-launch-of-the-chips-act-2-initiative\/\">website<\/a><\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the \u201cGet familiar with EU Networks\u201d article series, it is the turn of the\u00a0European&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,33],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-2262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-network-introduction","category-sirut-en","tag-sirut-en"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":196,"label":"Network introduction"},{"value":33,"label":"Sirut"}],"post_tag":[{"value":34,"label":"Sirut"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/tampere.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/kuva-3-1.png",963,369,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Georgios Kareklas","author_link":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/author\/georgios\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":196,"name":"Network introduction","slug":"network-introduction","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":196,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":196,"category_count":3,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Network introduction","category_nicename":"network-introduction","category_parent":0},{"term_id":33,"name":"Sirut","slug":"sirut-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":33,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":33,"category_count":6,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Sirut","category_nicename":"sirut-en","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":34,"name":"Sirut","slug":"sirut-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":34,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2266,"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions\/2266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tampere.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}