05 Mar 2026
Reacting to today's unveiling of the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act which supports its Made in Europe agenda, William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, said:
“Businesses were apprehensive about the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act, as there were significant fears it would force the UK out of European supply chains through tough rules on investment and procurement.
“But legislators have listened to these concerns as the Act adopted by the European Commission gives UK parts and components an exemption from these aspects of the regulations.
“There is a clear route for our products to be included in the definition of ‘EU goods’ for both procurement and foreign direct investment purposes. This exempts them from the new controls which will apply tocountries trading with the EU that do not have a free trade agreement.
“The Act is still a radical redrawing of the EU’s industrial policy on low carbon technologies and its resilience agenda to address vulnerabilities in supply chains.
“But the rules could have had considerably more impact upon cross-border trade and investment in automotives and climate change technologies.
“However, there is still other legislation connected to the Made in Europe agenda, including on automotives, and EU assembly requirements, which presents risk to UK industry. A solution must be found here too.
“To prevent these continual battles the focus should now be on securing a formal economic security agreement between the UK and EU at the next Leaders’ Summit.”
Full details of the Industrial Accelerator Act can be found here.
