The Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU submitted a new partial compromise document on the future Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) to the Member States on 2 and 3 July, and they were due to discuss it on Monday 6 July.
While Dublin hopes to secure political approval for this draft regulation, proposed on 4 March (see EUROPE 13900/5), at the Competitiveness Council on 24 September, the new partial compromise text this time concerns Chapter 3, which establishes a framework for the application of Union origin and low-carbon requirements to certain products and services from strategic sectors, in the context of public procurement and public support schemes.
Among the changes: a new Article 6a lays down low-carbon and Union origin requirements not only for concrete, mortar and aluminium used in certain downstream sectors, namely buildings, infrastructure and transport, but now also for steel, which had not been included in the Commission text.
This addition reflects, among other things, a request from the European steel sector, which had not understood the absence of any mention of low-carbon steel of EU origin (see EUROPE 13821/2).
According to the two latest compromise texts seen by Agence Europe, the new text therefore applies to the following sectors:
(a) steel, and any product the performance of which depends mainly on steel, intended for use in buildings, infrastructure and motor vehicles for civil purposes;
(b) concrete and mortar, and any product the performance of which depends mainly on concrete and mortar, intended for use in buildings and infrastructure for civil purposes;
(c) aluminium, and any product the performance of which depends mainly on aluminium, intended for use in buildings, infrastructure and motor vehicles for civil purposes.
(d) new pure electric vehicles (PEV), off-vehicle charging hybrid electric vehicles (OVC-HEV), fuel cell vehicles (FCV), small electric vehicles, corporate zero- and low-emission vehicles as referred to in [Proposal for a Regulation of 16 December 2025 on clean corporate vehicles] and small zero-emission vehicles as referred to in [Proposal for a Regulation (EU) 2019/631 [as amended by the Proposal for a Regulation of 16 December 2025 amending Regulation (EU) 2019/631 as regards CO2 emission standards for new light-duty vehicles and vehicle labelling].
The criteria and percentages set for public authorities when issuing calls for tender or providing public support to sectors in order to take account of products of EU origin or those considered equivalent remain unchanged compared with March.
In addition, the text introduces greater use of implementing acts in the implementation of this chapter and replaces the delegated acts provided for by the Commission.
On the public procurement aspect, the Commission is also invited to make available to contracting authorities, contracting entities and economic operators a freely accessible digital tool listing third countries that may be considered to fall within the scope of the IAA (that is, content originating in third countries with which the Union has concluded an agreement establishing a free-trade area or a customs union, or which are parties to the Agreement on Government Procurement, where relevant Union obligations exist under that agreement) or, conversely, to be excluded from it.
Article 32a also provides that, where appropriate, the Commission “shall issue guidance on the application of this Regulation with a view to ensuring its uniform implementation across the Member States”.
Link to the 2 July document: https://aeur.eu/f/mqc (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)