To date, seventeen Member States have signed the Declaration: Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden.
According to the Declaration, the signing parties agree to:
1. Align and/or coordinate major European, national, and regional R&D programmes and initiatives in quantum technologies and launch cooperation activities to intensify European
efforts to be a leading quantum R&I player globally, as well as a norm setter, by shaping quantum standards with international partners and relevant government standardisation bodies.
2. Coordinate efforts to accelerate the transition from the “lab” to the “fab”, fill the gaps in the European supply chain and facilitate the transformation of high-quality European quantum research into marketable devices and applications with substantial economic and societal value.
3. Support a coordinated network of quantum competence clusters. The mission of these competence clusters would be to promote quantum-focused, industry-oriented research, innovation and support activities in Member States, and to help network them at EU level. They would address combinations of different activities of the quantum technology ecosystem, in accordance with the preferences and objectives of each Member State.
4. Engage in activities to build collectively the pan-European quantum infrastructures of the future, both on Earth and in space, in quantum computing and simulation, secure communications, and quantum sensing and metrology.
5. Further develop all areas of the European quantum ecosystem, especially via support for start-ups and scale-ups, as well as actions to encourage private funding, including encouraging large companies in many industrial sectors to invest in quantum.
6. Support more public investments in European innovation in quantum, boosting the EU’s economic security and technological autonomy.
7. Identify the skills development and training measures necessary to support and grow the EU quantum ecosystem and take coordinated action to implement them.
8. Undertake activities to gain a deeper understanding of the social and economic impact of quantum technologies and of the challenges that quantum computing is likely to raise for current encryption techniques.
9. Monitor the global quantum technologies outlook, align internationally focused measures to strengthen the EU’s economic security, identify key developments, opportunities, and threats, and actively engage in the identification and development of prospective EU-level agreements and collaboration opportunities in quantum with third countries and international organisations.