A draft European Union law meant to boost the bloc’s industrial production could allow some products from countries linked to the EU through a customs union or free trade agreement, including Turkey, to be treated as being of EU origin under certain conditions.
The European Commission presented the draft on March 4 as the Industrial Accelerator Act, a package that would attach “Made in EU” and low carbon requirements to parts of public procurement and public support meant to build manufacturing capacity and cut reliance on outside suppliers.
European Commission Executive Vice President Stéphane Séjourné said the EU aims to raise industry’s share of the bloc’s gross domestic product to 20 percent by 2035 from about 14 percent now.
The proposal targets sectors the commission calls strategic, including steel, cement and aluminum along with vehicle manufacturing. It also covers net zero technologies such as batteries, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, photovoltaics and nuclear technologies.
The draft says content from partners that have an EU free trade area agreement or a customs union may be considered to be of EU origin under conditions set out in the law. Turkey has been linked to the EU through a customs union since 1995, which removed most tariffs on industrial goods and tied parts of Turkey’s trade policy to EU rules.
EU officials have also said access to procurement tied to the new framework would depend on reciprocity, meaning partner countries may need to offer comparable access to EU companies in their own public markets. That could shape how broadly the draft benefits Turkey, which is not a party to the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement.
Turkey’s Trade Minister Ömer Bolat welcomed what he described as recognition of the customs union link in the proposed framework and said it could support investment and competitiveness in shared supply chains, pointing to the automotive sector.
The draft will now be negotiated by EU member states and the European Parliament and could change before it becomes law. Turkey has watched the file closely after earlier drafts and briefings raised the risk that “Made in Europe” thresholds in public tenders could reach 70 percent for some purchases, prompting lobbying by Turkish business groups and reports that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to warn against treating Turkey as a third country.
Analysts and business groups in Turkey have said tighter EU industrial rules could affect market access and investment decisions. Turkey lost market share to China in 44 of 97 product categories exported to the EU over the past year, according to an analysis by Turkey’s Industrial Development Bank, which warned that a “Made in Europe” approach could reshape eligibility for incentives and procurement if Turkey is excluded.