Artikelen bij COM(2025)414 - Amending Council Regulation 2021/1173 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking - Hoofdinhoud
Dit is een beperkte versie
U kijkt naar een beperkte versie van dit dossier in de EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2025)414 - Amending Council Regulation 2021/1173 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2025)414  |
| datum | 15 juli 2025 |
Article 1
(1) Article 2 is amended as follows:
(2) the following point (3c) is added:
(3c) ‘Artificial Intelligence Giga Factory’ or ‘AI Gigafactory’ means a state-of-the-art large-scale facility with sufficient capacity to handle the complete lifecycle – development, training, fine-tuning, and large-scale inference – of very large, AI models and applications, providing a supercomputing service infrastructure, which is composed of AI-optimised computing capacity, a supporting data centre infrastructure (including high-capacity storage and networking), dedicated secure cloud user access environments, and specialised secure AI-oriented support services for its advanced operations and is supported by an environmentally sustainable energy supply system.
(3) the following point (3d) is added:
(3d) ‘Artificial Intelligence Giga Factory Consortium’ or ‘AI Gigafactory Consortium’ means an association of legal entities duly incorporated in the Union coming together in a consortium for the purpose of establishing and operating an AI Gigafactory and specifying the respective roles and responsibilities of these entities for the lifetime of the AI Gigafactory, or a new legal entity established for the purpose of establishing and operating an AI Gigafactory, that has a legal form recognised in any Member State. The AI Gigafactory Consortium shall be established for a minimum duration of five years. One or more of the private partners of such consortium may be participating in the Private Members of the Joint Undertaking.
(4) the following point (3e) is added:
(3e) ‘AI Gigafactory Coordinator’ means a legal entity, duly incorporated in the Union and validly existing under the laws of a Member State of establishment, which is legally authorized to represent the AI Gigafactory Consortium and has the legal capacity and authority to enter into, execute, and perform the AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement; the AI Gigafactory coordinator shall be headquartered in the Union and shall be under control, directly or indirectly, through ownership interest or via other means, as defined in the Chapter IV of Regulation (EU) No 2024/1624 and relevant Union competition law principles, of legal entities or natural persons established within the Union. The coordinator may also be an existing hosting entity representing a Participating State that is a Member State or a hosting consortium of Participating States.
(5) the following point (3f) is added:
(3f) ‘AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement’ means an administrative agreement between the Joint Undertaking and the AI Gigafactory Coordinator to host and operate an AI Gigafactory.
(6) the following point (3g) is added:
(3g) ‘AI Gigafactory hosting entity’ means a legal entity which has been designated by the AI Gigafactory consortium to host and operate an AI Gigafactory and its services, and which is established in a Participating State that is a Member State.
(7) the following point (3h) is added:
(3h) ‘Artificial Intelligence Gigafactory Cooperation Agreement’ is an agreement between the Joint Undertaking and a third country specifying access conditions to AI Gigafactories for the legal entities under control, directly or indirectly, through ownership interest or via other means, of legal entities or natural persons established in that third country.
(8) the following point (19a) is added:
(19a) ‘national quantum Competence Centre' means a legal entity, or a consortium of legal entities, established in a Participating State, providing users from industry, including SMEs, academia, and public administrations with access on demand to quantum technologies, tools, applications and services, as well as to national or European quantum infrastructures, and offering expertise, skills, training, networking and outreach.
(9) Article 3 is amended as follows:
(10) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:
The mission of the Joint Undertaking shall be to develop, deploy, extend and maintain in the Union a world-leading federated, secure and hyper-connected supercomputing, quantum computing, service and data infrastructure ecosystem. It shall also support the development and uptake of demand-oriented and user-driven innovative and competitive supercomputing systems and quantum technologies and systems based on a supply chain that will ensure components, technologies and knowledge limiting the risk of disruptions and the development of a wide range of applications optimised for these systems; and, to widen the use of that supercomputing infrastructure to a large number of public and private users and support the twin transition and the development of key skills for European science and industry.
(11) The following point (fa) is added to paragraph 2:
(fa) to support state-of-the-art scientific and applied research and innovation in quantum technologies, their transition from the lab-to-the fab, and their deployment, uptake and integration in world-class quantum infrastructures, for building a dynamic, innovative and resilient quantum ecosystem across the EU, and for ensuring scientific and industrial leadership, competitiveness, strategic autonomy and technological sovereignty of the Union in quantum computing, communication and sensing.
(12) Point (h) in paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:
(h) to develop and operate the Artificial Intelligence Factories, and to support the establishment of and access to Artificial Intelligence Gigafactories and their services, in support of the further development of a highly competitive and innovative Artificial Intelligence ecosystem in the Union.
(13) Paragraph 3 is replaced by the following:
The Joint Undertaking shall contribute to safeguarding the interests of the Union when procuring supercomputers and supporting the development and uptake of High-Performance Computing and quantum technologies, systems and applications. It shall enable a co-design approach for the acquisition of world-class supercomputers, while safeguarding the security of the supply chain of procured technologies and systems. It shall contribute to the Union's strategic autonomy, support the development of technologies and applications reinforcing the European High-Performance Computing and Quantum Technologies supply chains and promote their integration in systems that address a large number of scientific, societal, environmental, industrial as well as security use needs.
(14) Article 4 is amended as follows:
(15) the following point (i) is added to paragraph 1:
(i) AI Gigafactory pillar, covering activities of AI Gigafactories, which in their operation may be connected with the EuroHPC network of Artificial Intelligence Factories for ensuring seamless integration and knowledge sharing across the European Artificial Intelligence ecosystem; this pillar shall include the following activities:
(i)providing a world-class Artificial Intelligence compute infrastructure for European researchers, entrepreneurs, and industries,
(ii)enabling the development of new Artificial Intelligence solutions across all public and private sectors and
(iii)ensuring the Union’s competitiveness and sovereignty as an Artificial Intelligence continent.
(16) the following point (j) is added to paragraph 1:
(j) Quantum technologies pillar, addressing the full quantum ecosystem and the application domains of quantum computing and simulation, quantum communication, and quantum sensing and metrology, ensuring the security and resilience of the quantum supply chain and its enabling technologies. Activities shall inter alia address:
(a) Scientific and Technological Research and Innovation: Advancing research excellence in quantum science and technology domains.
(b) Transition from the lab to the fab and ecosystem development: Supporting the development and deployment of state-of-the-art quantum infrastructures; fostering the industrialisation of quantum technologies by supporting the uptake of quantum applications in key public and industrial sectors, ensuring the translation of advances across all quantum domains into real-world applications, including the development of lead markets; promoting European and international standards; and, supporting the development and networking of national quantum competence centres across Europe.
(c) Skills and Talent: Developing a competitive and inclusive quantum research and engineering workforce through coordinated education, training and mobility initiatives, across key quantum-related disciplines and technical fields.
(d) International cooperation: Developing international collaboration in quantum technologies to solve global scientific and societal challenges, in line with the external policy objectives and international commitments of the Union.
(17) Article 5 is amended as follows:
(18) Paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:
The Union financial contribution to the Joint Undertaking including EEA appropriations shall be up to EUR 3 972 300 000 including EUR 92 000 000 for administrative costs, on the condition that that amount is at least matched by the contribution of Participating States, distributed indicatively as follows:
(a)up to EUR 1 660 000 000 from Horizon Europe
(b)up to EUR 2 012 300 000 from the Digital Europe Programme
(c)up to EUR 300 000 000 from the Connecting Europe Facility.
(19) A new subparagraph is added in Paragraph 1:
Additional funds from Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme and the Connecting Europe Facility may complement the Union contribution referred to in the first sub-paragraph, on the condition that the additional amounts are at least matched by the contribution of one or more members of the Joint Undertaking other than the Union. Such additional Union contribution shall be dedicated exclusively to the pillar referred to in Article 4(1)(i). These additional funds shall not be accounted for in the calculation of the Union maximum financial contribution.
(20) Paragraph 3 is replaced by the following:
Additional funds from any Union programme other than and complementing the ones referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article may be allocated to the Joint Undertaking to support its pillars of activities referred to in Article 4, except those referred to in Article 4(1)(a). These additional funds shall not be accounted for in the calculation of the Union maximum financial contribution.
(21) A new paragraph 4a is added:
For the contributions entrusted to the Joint Undertaking in accordance with paragraph 3 and 4 of this Article, the requirements of Article 158 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 are applicable. When these additional Union contributions are related to the pillar referred to in Article 4(1)(i), one or more of the members other than the Union shall make additional contributions commensurate to the amount of the Union contributions.
(22) Paragraph 6 is deleted.
(23) Paragraph 7 is deleted.
(24) Paragraph 8 is deleted.
(25) The following Article 12b is added:
‘Article 12b’
Artificial Intelligence Giga Factory
1. An AI Gigafactory shall be located in a Member State. It shall be financially supported by a partnership between the Union and one or more Participating States, represented through the Joint Undertaking, and an AI Gigafactory Consortium, which may include one or more technology infrastructure suppliers, legally represented by an AI Gigafactory Coordinator.
2. Participation in an AI Gigafactory Consortium of legal entities from non-Participating States may be subject to restrictions or exclusion where such participation is considered contrary to the Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy or security. In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/695, Regulation (EU) 2021/694 and Regulation (EU) 2021/1153, the call for expression of interest for selecting an AI Gigafactory Consortium may limit participation in the said Consortium to legal entities established only in Participating States or to legal entities established in specified associated countries of the Horizon Europe Framework Programme, the Digital Europe Programme and any subsequent relevant Union funding programme, or other third countries in addition to Participating States. The restrictions and exclusions referred to in this paragraph shall in principle not apply to legal entities established in third countries, which have signed an AI Gigafactory Cooperation Agreement or a similar agreement with the Union. The call for expression of interest for selecting an AI Gigafactory may specify that legal entities in other third countries may be eligible provided they comply with the requirements to be fulfilled by those legal entities to guarantee the protection of the security interests of the Union and the Member States and to ensure the protection of classified documents information. Those requirements shall be set out in the work programme.
3. The AI Gigafactory Consortium shall benefit from explicit provision of an appropriate supporting document proving the commitment of the Member State where the AI Gigafactory hosting entity is established, or of the competent authorities of the Participating States of the AI Gigafactory Consortium.
4. The Union financial contribution referred to in Article 5 shall cover up to 17% to the capital expenditure (CAPEX) investments of the overall compute infrastructure of the AI Gigafactory, or to a pre-agreed guaranteed purchase of access time to the AI Gigafactory equivalent to a leased capacity of the CAPEX. One or more Participating States should at least match the Union contribution. The remaining investment as well as the operational expenditure (OPEX) of the AI Gigafactory shall be covered by the AI Gigafactory Consortium.
5. A selected AI Factory may substantially scale up to become an AI Gigafactory. In such case, the Union’s financial support already provided for this AI Factory shall be counted as part of the Union’s contribution towards the CAPEX of the AI Gigafactory computing infrastructure. The Artificial Intelligence Factory hosting agreement referred to in Article 10 shall be modified accordingly, where appropriate. The additional investment into the Artificial Intelligence Factory concerned to become an AI Gigafactory as well as the operational expenditure (OPEX) of the AI Gigafactory shall be covered by the AI Gigafactory Consortium.
6. Participating States that are Member States may, by mutual agreement with the Joint Undertaking, channel their respective voluntary contributions, including those referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article and any other in addition to them, in total or in part, for a specific AI Gigafactory through the Joint Undertaking, which shall then manage and disburse these funds to the designated AI Gigafactory on their behalf.
7. The Joint Undertaking shall own the part of the AI Gigafactory compute infrastructure corresponding to the Union contribution specified in paragraphs 4 and 5. The duration of this ownership or of the leased capacity referred to in paragraph 4 shall be at least five years from the start of operations of the AI Gigafactory and further specified in the AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement. This duration shall be extended in case of a substantial upgrade of the AI Gigafactory compute infrastructure. Without prejudice to the winding up of the Joint Undertaking, as referred to in Article 23(4) of the Statutes, this ownership shall be transferred in accordance with the AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement or be extended for an agreed period under conditions specified in the AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement. In the case of transfer of ownership to the AI Gigafactory consortium, the residual value of the AI Gigafactory compute infrastructure shall be converted into equivalent access rights for the Union. If there is no transfer of ownership to the AI Gigafactory consortium according to the Hosting Agreement, but a decision for decommissioning, the relevant costs shall be borne by the AI Gigafactory Consortium.
8. The access rights of the Union and the Participating States in AI Gigafactory shall be directly proportional to their respective financial contributions to the CAPEX of the computing infrastructure of the AI Gigafactory, or to the pre-agreed guaranteed purchase of access time to the AI Gigafactory.
9. The Governing Board of the Joint Undertaking shall determine:
(a)the conditions of the Union's access time to the AI Gigafactories,
(b)specific rules for access conditions to AI Gigafactories that concern the allocation of access time for projects and activities considered as strategic for the Union.
10. When determining the conditions of the Union’s access time pursuant to paragraph 9, the Governing Board shall ensure that access shall:
(a)be granted to users residing, established or located in a Member State or in a third country associated to the Digital Europe Programme, to Horizon Europe or to the Connecting Europe Facility;
(b)be free of charge for the users from entities governed by public law. It shall also be free of charge for industrial users for applications related to research and innovation activities funded by Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme, or the Connecting Europe Facility as well as those awarded a Seal of Excellence under Horizon Europe or the Digital Europe Programme and for private innovation activities of SMEs and scale-ups;
(c)include reserved compute resources specifically for EU-funded research projects, ensuring guaranteed availability and scheduling priority.
11. The Governing Board shall monitor the share of the Union’s access time for the different types of users, defined in point (a) of paragraph 10. In case where there is a significant imbalance in shares of access time between the different types of users versus demand, it shall take appropriate corrective action to address this imbalance.
12. Contributions from the Union or the Participating States shall be subject to conditions ensuring the protection of the Union's strategic interests. The specific conditions referred to in this paragraph shall be laid down in a dedicated AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement between the Joint Undertaking and the AI Gigafactory consortium. The AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement shall be governed by Union law, supplemented, for any matter not covered by this Regulation or by other Union legal acts, by the law of the Member State where the hosting entity is established. The AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement shall:
(a)set out in detail the ownership and governance structure of the AI Gigafactory;
(b)include provisions ensuring an effective scrutiny and control of the AI Gigafactory by the Union for safeguarding the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy or security;
(c)specify the financial contributions of the Union, of the Participating States and the public and/or private partners of the AI Gigafactory Consortium including the guaranteed access time to the AI Gigafactory referred to in paragraph 8, as appropriate, and its duration;
(d)specify, if appropriate, any other Union’s interests resulting from any Union investments regulated by specific investment agreements between the AI Gigafactory consortium and InvestEU;
(e)set out the eligibility conditions for the non-Union users of an AI Gigafactory; these shall comply with the same conditions as the eligibility conditions specified in paragraph 2;
(f)set out the detailed conditions for access for the Union users and the accounting modalities of the access times to the AI Gigafactory services;
(g)the quality of service offered to the Joint Undertaking users when operating the AI Gigafactory, as set out in the service level agreement included in the AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement;
(h)set out the modalities of acquisition, operation and use of the AI Gigafactory data and compute infrastructure, including the user requirements from the public sector, where appropriate; where the AI Gigafactory Consortium includes one or more technology infrastructure suppliers, the AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement shall include the provision of enhanced conflict-of-interest safeguards concerning these suppliers;
(i)the conditions for the transfer of ownership referred to in paragraph 7, where appropriate;
(j)detail the extension of ownership or of the pre-agreed guaranteed purchased access time, as appropriate, and the phasing out conditions for the AI Gigafactory, where appropriate;
(k)the liability conditions for operating the AI Gigafactory, where appropriate;
(l)the obligation of the AI Gigafactory hosting entity to submit by 31 January of each year to the Governing Board an audit report and data on the use of the Union access time in the previous financial year;
(m)contain an arbitration clause, within the meaning of Article 272 TFEU, granting jurisdiction over all matters covered by the hosting agreement to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
13. The AI Gigafactory shall include a public governance body composed of representatives from the Commission and the Participating States providing public funding to the specific AI Gigafactory. Without prejudice to the AI Gigafactory consortium’s management and operational autonomy, and to ensure alignment with the public interest objectives underpinning the public funding, the following elements shall require explicit prior approval from the designated public governance body:
(a)Any proposed access agreements with entities from third countries that may raise concerns regarding the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy or security;
(b)Substantial changes to the legal and financial structure or control impacting the Union’s interests or those of the Participating States, such as a change in the ultimate ownership or control of the AI Gigafactory, any relocation of critical assets outside the Union or major financial restructuring decisions;
(c)Significant change in the strategic purpose of the AI Gigafactories.
14. Following a call for expression of interest, the AI Gigafactory Consortium shall be selected by the Governing Board of the Joint Undertaking through a fair and transparent process, with the support of a panel of independent experts and of an accredited financial institution appointed by the Governing Board for the evaluation, based, inter alia, on the following criteria:
(a)Technical evaluation:
(1) Objectives and technical quality of the proposal
(2) Quality of the workplan
(3) Quality of the physical, IT and networking infrastructure
(4) Sustainability and energy efficiency
(5) Consortium experience and know-how in setting up similar large-scale facilities.
(b)Potential Impact:
(1) Quality of service, including security and trustworthiness
(2) Impact on the European AI ecosystem
(3) EU added value.
(c)Financial Feasibility:
(1) Investment commitments of the Participating States and of the AI Gigafactory Consortium
(2) Quality and financial viability of the proposed business model (including a due diligence to be carried out by the appointed accredited financial institution).
15. Where the Consortium does not include one or more technology infrastructure suppliers, the suppliers of the AI Gigafactory shall be selected by the AI Gigafactory Consortium based on fair and transparent tender specifications that shall take into account general system specifications, and in particular the user requirements from the public sector, provided by the Union in the call for expression of interest and further specified in the AI Gigafactory Hosting Agreement. The selection shall be based on fair, open and transparent criteria, and shall also ensure EU added value and address the security and resilience of the supply chain. The selected tenderers shall comply with the eligibility conditions specified in paragraph 2.
16. The Joint Undertaking may establish framework contracts for the provision of essential and high-demand components, such as advanced AI processors. The AI Gigafactory Consortia may use the framework contracts referred to in this paragraph for their procurement.
(26) Article 16 is amended as follows:
(27) Paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:
Without prejudice to Article 17(9), the use of EuroHPC supercomputers shall be open to users from the public and private sectors applications. Except for the industrial-grade EuroHPC supercomputers, their use shall be primarily for research and innovation purposes falling under public funding programmes, for public sector applications and for private innovation activities of SMEs, where appropriate.
Annex
The Annex is amended as follows:
(28) Article 3 of the Annex is amended as follows:
(29) Paragraph 2 is amended:
Any application of a Member State or a third country associated to Horizon Europe or the Digital Europe Programme for membership of the Joint Undertaking shall be addressed to the Governing Board. The candidate countries shall provide a written acceptance of these Statutes, and of any other provisions governing the functioning of the Joint Undertaking. The candidates shall also provide their motivation for requesting membership to the Joint Undertaking and indicate how their national supercomputing or quantum technology strategy is aligned with the Joint Undertaking's objectives. The Governing Board shall assess the application, taking into account the relevance and the potential added value of the candidate as regards the achievement of the mission and objectives of the Joint Undertaking and may decide to ask for clarifications regarding the candidature before endorsing the application.
(30) Article 4 of the Annex is amended as follows:
(31) the following point (d) is added in paragraph 1:
(d)the Quantum Strategy Advisory Group.
(32) Article 5 of the Annex is amended as follows:
(33) the following paragraph 3 is added:
(3) For the quantum pillar of activities, the Participating States shall appoint a representative from their competent authorities in the field of quantum technologies.
(34) Article 6 of the Annex is amended as follows:
(35) the following paragraph 5a is added:
(5a) For the tasks referred to in Article 7(4a) of these Statutes, and for each AI Gigafactory, the voting rights of the Participating States shall be distributed in proportion to their committed financial contributions and to their in-kind contributions to that AI Gigafactory until the end of the AI Gigafactory hosting agreement; the in-kind contributions shall only be taken into account if they have been certified ex-ante by an independent expert or auditor.
For the purpose of this paragraph, decisions of the Governing Board shall be taken by a majority of at least 75 % of all votes, including the votes of the members who are absent.
(36) the following paragraph 6 is amended:
(6) For the tasks referred to in Article 7(5), 7(5a), 7(6) and 7(7) of these Statutes, decisions of the Governing Board shall be taken in two stages.
(37) Article 7 of the Annex is amended as follows:
(38) the following paragraph 4a is added:
(4a) The Governing Board shall carry out the following tasks related to the AI Gigafactories referred to in Article 12b of this Regulation:
(a)discuss and adopt the part of the multiannual strategic programme that is related to the establishment of AI Gigafactories referred to in Article 18(1) of these Statutes;
(b)discuss and adopt the part of the annual work programme that is related to the establishment of AI Gigafactories and the selection of AI Gigafactory Consortia and the corresponding expenditure estimates;
(c)approve the launch of calls for expression of interest, in accordance with the annual work programme;
(d)approve the selection of the AI Gigafactory Consortia which will establish and operate the AI Gigafactories;
(e)determine the conditions of the Union's access time to the AI Gigafactories
(f) approve any tenders related to the establishment of an AI Gigafactory selected for funding;
(g)approve framework contracts established by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking for the provision of essential and high-demand components of AI Gigafactories.
(39) the following paragraph 5a is added:
(5a) For the Quantum Pillar of activities, the provisions of Article 7(5) of these Statutes apply, with the exception of activities related to the acquisition and operation of quantum computers where the provisions of Article 7(4) of these Statutes apply.
(40) Article 10 of the Annex is amended as follows:
(41) paragraph 1 is amended as follows:
The Industrial and Scientific Advisory Board shall be composed of a Research and Innovation Advisory Group, an Infrastructure Advisory Group and a Quantum Strategy Advisory Group.
(42) the following paragraph 7 is added:
(7) The Quantum Strategy Advisory Group shall consist of no more than twelve members, of which up to six shall be appointed by the Private Members taking into account their commitments to the Joint Undertaking and up to six shall be appointed by the Governing Board, in accordance with Article 7(3)(k) of these Statutes.
(43) The following Article 12a is added:
Article 12 - a Functioning of the Quantum Strategy Advisory Group
1. The Quantum Strategy Advisory Group shall meet at least twice a year.2. The Quantum Strategy Advisory Group may appoint working groups where necessary under the overall coordination of one or more members.
3. The Quantum Strategy Advisory Group shall elect its chair.
4. The Quantum Strategy Advisory Group shall adopt its rules of procedure, including the nomination of the constituent entities that shall represent the Advisory Group and the duration of their nomination.
(44) The following Article 14a is added:
Article 14 - a Tasks of the Quantum Strategy Advisory Group
1. The Quantum Strategy Advisory Group shall:(a)draw up its contribution to the draft multiannual strategic programme in relation to quantum technologies activities referred to in Article 20 of these Statutes and review it regularly in accordance with the evolution of scientific, industrial, and policy demand;
(b)organise public consultations open to all public and private stakeholders having an interest in the field of quantum technologies to inform them about, and collect feedback on, the draft multiannual strategic programme and the related draft activities of the quantum technologies work programme for a given year.
(c)The contribution to the draft multiannual strategic programme referred to in paragraph 1 shall address:
(d)the strategic research, innovation, deployment, and infrastructure priorities for the development and uptake of quantum technologies and their integration into the European digital ecosystem, to support the Union's resilience, technological sovereignty, and strategic autonomy while taking into account the dual-use potential of such technologies;
(e)potential international cooperation activities in quantum technologies that add value and are of mutual interest while ensuring alignment with Union values and security interests
(f)training, education, and workforce development priorities for addressing key competences and the skills gap in quantum technologies, including awareness of security-sensitive applications
(g)the acquisition, deployment, and operation of quantum infrastructures, including the interconnection and federation with High Performance Computing infrastructures and other digital infrastructures such as quantum communications and quantum sensing;
(h)measures for capability building, interoperability, standardisation, security in the field of quantum technologies with specific consideration of dual-use risks and protection of the strategic assets, interests, autonomy or security of the Union.
(45) Article 16 of the Annex is amended as follows:
Budgetary commitments of the Joint undertaking may be divided into annual instalments. From January 2025, at least 20 % of the cumulative budget of the residual years shall not be covered by annual instalments.
Article 40
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.