WIREDGOV

EXPERT COMMENT

The European Commission’s Industrial Accelerator Act has ‘Made in EU’ requirements that aim to adapt the bloc’s open market policy to geopolitical realities.

It is targeted, but it’s a significant shift: the European Union is prioritizing its own home-based industrial production. The European Commission proposed on 4 March a comprehensive legislative package, dubbed the ‘Industrial Accelerator Act’ (IAA), meant to strengthen European industry by raising the share of EU-made materials and components in public procurements, government purchase incentives or tax breaks. 

This concept of European preference is controversial. There have been over 40 draft versions of the Act, which has generated heated debates, inside the Commission and among the EU-27 bloc. Its announcement has been postponed several times. 

Even if its scope ends up being limited, the discriminatory measure represents a significant change in the EU’s current legal framework for investment and, moreover, a change of mindset in addressing globalization and the business environment. Under this legislation, for instance, state-subsidized electric cars will have to be assembled in the EU and contain a substantial portion of European components.

For the bloc’s trading partners, the IAA looks like some sort of sophisticated protectionism. For some member states, it appears to impose costly new bureaucratic hurdles to the detriment of entrepreneurial freedom. Northern EU member states are skeptical. Local authorities and SMEs fear more paperwork and rising costs.

But for its proponents, headed by France, it simply reflects what other powers are already doing, to respond to punitive US tariffs and aggressive Chinese trade practices. Ottawa, for instance, launched a ‘Buy Canadian Policy’ in December 2025, rolling out new federal procurement rules to prioritize local suppliers and Canadian-made goods and services.

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