Europe’s industrial base is being steadily weakened, putting jobs, investment, innovation and Europe’s strategic autonomy at risk. The Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) is a crucial opportunity to reverse this trend – but it must deliver for Europe’s workers and industrial regions.
The warning signs are stark. Up to 1.3 million European manufacturing jobs could be at risk in the coming months, while weak demand remains a major constraint on industry. Plant closures, declining production and delayed investments are putting entire industrial ecosystems under pressure.
Europe urgently needs investment in factories, technologies, research and development, skills and workers. What it cannot afford is managed industrial decline while companies continue rewarding shareholders and shifting production elsewhere.
The automotive sector illustrates the problem. Seven major European carmakers generated €469 billion in net profits between 2012 and 2025 and distributed €189 billion through dividends and share buybacks. At the end of 2025, they still held €177 billion in cash and short-term investments.
The question is not simply whether money exists. It is where companies choose to invest it – and how public policy shapes those choices.
This is why industriAll Europe is calling for the IAA to put Made in Europe at its heart. Public procurement, state aid, public support and lead markets must create predictable demand for European-made products, stimulate industrial investment and accelerate the green transition.
IndustriAll Europe's General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling says:
“Europe cannot subsidise its own deindustrialisation. Public money must deliver public value: good jobs, investment and industrial capacity here in Europe. Made in Europe must mean more than putting the final screws into a product here. It must mean creating value throughout our industrial supply chains, with quality jobs, collective bargaining and strong social and environmental standards.”
Made in Europe is not about autarky. European industrial supply chains cross borders and must continue to do so. industriAll Europe supports a geographical approach encompassing the EU and EFTA countries, candidate countries where social and environmental standards are effectively enforced, and products complying with EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement rules of origin. Any broader access must be based on genuine social and environmental reciprocity.
But Made in Europe must also go beyond geography.
Europe needs a stake throughout strategic value chains: from raw materials, batteries and power electronics to software, engineering, research and development, manufacturing and final assembly.
This requires meaningful European-content requirements. In automotive, industriAll Europe advocates an 80 per cent European-content threshold for vehicles benefiting from public support, alongside stronger provisions for clean-tech components and Made in Europe requirements for low-carbon steel.
Social conditionalities must also apply horizontally across the IAA. Companies benefiting from European public support must deliver quality employment, respect collective bargaining, invest in skills and maintain European industrial capacity.
The Industrial Accelerator Act is a historic opportunity to rebuild Europe’s industrial future.
Europe cannot afford to miss it.
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