The Council compromise seeks to reframe the Commission’s binary approach, which handed it broad discretion to decide whether countries that have public procurement and free-trade deals with the EU would qualify.

A broad interpretation would have meant that as many as 80 countries could have qualified, raising concerns in EU member countriwes like France over the breadth of its scope. Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné had, however, indicated the Made in Europe club could be limited to just 20 countries.

The Council compromise calls for implementing acts, rather than delegated acts, giving EU members a formal say over the inclusion or removal of third countries based on whether they provide reciprocal treatment to EU products or concerns over dependency and security of supply.

A general view of production lines at the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant on June 4, 2025 in Rastatt, Germany. | Florian Wiegand/Getty Images

The IAA’s overarching goal is to protect energy-intensive industries, net-zero technologies and the automotive industry from unfair foreign competition by leveraging public money and access to the single market. That includes using public procurement to favor products meeting local-content requirements or qualifying for the Made in Europe preference.

Making it work

To make the system work in practice, the Commission would be required to maintain product-specific lists for countries that qualify for partner-origin treatment through the Access2Markets portal. Procuring authorities relying on the tool to determine coverage would not be considered to have infringed EU law solely because the publicly accessible database contains incorrect information, proposes the Council.

In another tweak to the IAA’s all-important Chapter III, which defines EU origin, the Council also introduces the concept of “melt and pour” in determining the origin of steel products — bringing the measure in line with existing rules, including the tighter EU steel import quotas that took effect last month.