On Friday 9 January, European Commission Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné presented the key issues of the future ‘Industrial Accelerator Act’ to the French ambassadors gathered in Paris.
Now expected on 28 January, it will have to implement the principle of European preference at a time when “the economy has become the main component of the current geopolitical dialectic” and “whoever doesn’t control the levers of their economy - their financing, their technologies, their raw materials - cannot ensure their own security”, he explained.
“Long considered a French utopia, Europe is finally embracing a ‘Made in Europe’ strategy in the sectors most essential to its security”, he added. “We need to produce the most strategic technologies, such as clean and digital technologies, on our own soil. (...) The industrial accelerator will be THE law par excellence for ‘Made in Europe’”, he continued.
“First, what we impose on our companies, we must impose on foreign companies. These are the new conditions on foreign direct investments - local hiring, production in Europe, transfer of intellectual property - to name but a few. Next, European public money must make the European economy work. (...) We are establishing this obligation once and for all in the accelerator”.
This act, which could introduce minimum thresholds for local ‘EU’ content or labour in car production or public procurement, is being closely scrutinised by third countries.
It also divided the Member States, particularly over the percentages, but the very principle of a European industrial preference is no longer open to debate. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)