Exclusive: 'Everything can be weaponised,' EU trade chief Šefčovič speaks after Nexperia spat
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told Euronews in an exclusive interview that the Nexperia incident is "beginning to be resolved", but points to lessons about critical dependencies: "Everything can be weaponised."
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/11/14/exclusive-everything-can-be-weaponised-eu-trade-chief-sefcovic-speaks-after-nexperia-spat
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00:00The EU Trade Chief Maris Shevkovic is warning about the weaponization of critical components
00:06such as electronic chips and rare earth minerals, vital for industries such as cars and defense.
00:12It comes after the recent confrontation between the Dutch and Chinese governments over national security fears.
00:18The Dutch state seized control of Chinese-owned Nexperia semiconductor manufacturer using Cold War legislation.
00:26The Chinese government responded by halting vital chip supplies from China, which threatened to bring down the global automotive industry.
00:35Speaking exclusively to Euronews, Commissioner Shevkovic said the lesson learned is that everything can be weaponized and the EU needs to urgently diversify.
00:43I think the lessons also from this is that we just need to even work more closely with our industry and to motivate them even more to diversify the supply.
00:56And simply we have to work a little bit more like Japan, where they are stockpiling some of the critical raw materials,
01:04some of the critical, critical technologies and critical chips.
01:09And I think this would be one of the lessons which we want to bring in the new economic security doctrine which we will be presenting before the end of the year.
01:17The minister responsible, Minister Karaman, said he'd do it again.
01:20So do you understand, acknowledge, appreciate why the Dutch did it? Do you think they did the right thing?
01:26I think that we are not private to all the details because, of course, a lot of this information is super sensitive.
01:33So I think if it comes to the details of the concrete steps, which are linked, I understand, with the leadership of the next PDR and the CEO in that regard.
01:45So I know that on the level of the technical teams, they went through great details.
01:51What was very important for me, it's from one side to show really the European unity and solidarity, which we did,
01:57and to resolve the immediate threats of the whole thing, of the production of the important companies.
02:04But I suppose the response to almost overthrow the whole of the industry, I mean, do you think that's a harbinger of the future relations with China?
02:12I think it very much underlines the lessons we learned over the past years.
02:19And it doesn't concern only China that simply today everything could be weaponized.
02:25So if you are dependent on something, if you have a dependency, it could be weaponized.
02:29It started with the gas, then, of course, it continued with the critical raw materials, with data, with high-end, low-end chips, and so on and so forth.
02:37We just simply have to have much more open mind what are really the critical elements of European economy,
02:48which we need simply to monitor much more closely.
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