Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Romania's Government adopted Emergency Ordinance nr. 8/2026 on 24 February 2026, published in the Official Gazette (Monitorul Oficial) nr. 147 of 25 February 2026 and entering into force 1 March 2026, committing a EUR 5 billion (~RON 25 bn) horizontal economic-recovery and productive-investment envelope through 2032 structured around nine state-aid schemes, a 200% corporate R&D expense deduction (High-Tech Research Schema), a RON 1 bn Investment and Development Bank (BID) recapitalization, and a RON 1 bn EximBank export-credit allocation. The ordinance frames Romania's pivot "from consumption to investments as the engine of economic growth" and establishes a Strategic Investment tier (minimum RON 1 bn project value) qualifying for the highest-intensity state-aid eligibility, while introducing a 3% tax-compliance bonus and asset-expensing threshold raised to RON 5,000.

On 3 December 2025 President Pedro Sánchez presented the Plan España Auto 2030, a five-year roadmap to mobilise EUR 30 bn (public + private) through 2030 to anchor electric-vehicle, battery and charging- infrastructure manufacturing in Spain. The plan is the first comprehensive Spanish auto-industrial policy of the post-COVID era and is structured as three immediate 2026 envelopes plus a multi-year PERTE-track: (i) Plan Auto+ — EUR 400 m in direct consumer-purchase subsidies effective 1 January 2026, replacing the autonomous-region- managed MOVES III with a centralised dealer-discount model run by MINCOTUR; (ii) MOVES Corredores — EUR 300 m for fast-charging-corridor deployment; and (iii) an additional EUR 580 m allocated to the PERTE VEC (Vehículo Eléctrico y Conectado) industrial-finance instrument in 2026, on top of the EUR ~3 bn already mobilised across previous PERTE VEC calls. The headline ambition is a sub-EUR 25,000 "affordable Spanish electric car" and 95% electrified light-vehicle production by 2035.

On 27 July 2025, President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached political agreement at Turnberry, Scotland, on a Framework Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade. The framework was formalised in a Joint Statement published on 21 August 2025 by the White House and DG TRADE. The deal establishes a 15% all-inclusive (MFN + Section 232) US tariff ceiling on the vast majority of EU originating goods — including autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, lumber, and chemicals — replacing the threatened 20-30% reciprocal tariff trajectory under EO 14257 (April 2025). Steel and aluminium are excluded from the 15% ceiling and remain at the 50% Section 232 rate pending negotiation of a quota solution. In return, the EU commits to: (i) eliminate tariffs on all US industrial goods, (ii) preferential market access for a wide range of US agricultural and seafood products, (iii) suspension of its rebalancing countermeasures under Reg 2025/778 (suspension effective 7 August 2025), (iv) expected energy offtake of $750bn (LNG, oil, nuclear) through 2028, (v) at least $40bn in US AI chip purchases, and (vi) facilitation of $600bn in additional EU corporate investment into the US through 2028. Effective from 1 September 2025, the US applies MFN-only treatment (no 15% top-up) to: aircraft and parts, generic pharmaceuticals and ingredients, chemical precursors, cork, and certain unavailable natural resources. The framework is not legally binding but anchors the bilateral architecture; it is the largest-economy ART-programme deal alongside US-UK, US-Japan, US-Korea, US-Taiwan, and US-Indonesia.

The Egyptian Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, approved an updated National Automotive Industry Strategy (2024–2030) in May 2025 with effect from July 2025. The strategy operationalises the framework set up by Law No. 162 of 2022 (Supreme Council for the Automotive Industry + Eco-Friendly Automotive Industry Financing Fund) and the Automotive Industry Development Programme (AIDP), targeting annual production of 400,000–500,000 vehicles by 2030 (vs ~30,000–50,000 in 2023–24) with 25% earmarked for export, generating ~USD 4 billion/year of revenue. It raises the mandatory local-content threshold from ~45% toward ≥60% by 2030 — a quasi-local-content-requirement enforced via tiered AIDP cash incentives — and is funded by an EGP 1.5 billion (~USD 30 million) FY2024/25 state-budget allocation. It is the first concrete sectoral industrial-policy framework targeting Chinese (Geely, Chery, BYD) and Japanese (Sumitomo, Nissan) OEM investment into Egypt as a Mediterranean / Africa export hub.

KfW IPEX-Bank, the export- and project-finance arm of German state development bank KfW, announced on 15 May 2025 a EUR 50 million loan to IONITY GmbH to expand and upgrade its High Power Charging (HPC) network along highways and in urban centers, with a stated focus on Germany, France, Sweden and the UK. IONITY is a joint venture of BMW Group, Ford, Hyundai Motor Group, Mercedes-Benz, Kia and Volkswagen Group (Audi and Porsche), together with BlackRock's Climate Infrastructure Platform as financial investor. The network currently operates roughly 750 charging sites and over 5,000 charging points across 24 European countries, with station output up to 400 kW and 100% renewable-sourced power.

On 5 March 2025 the European Commission adopted Communication COM(2025) 95 final, the "Industrial Action Plan for the European Automotive Sector", a horizontal sectoral industrial-policy framework structured around five pillars: innovation and digitalisation, clean mobility, competitiveness and supply-chain resilience, skills and the social dimension, and a global level playing field. Headline financial commitments include EUR 1bn under Horizon Europe for SDV/AI in mobility (2025-2027), EUR 1.8bn Innovation Fund earmark for EU battery cell manufacturing, EUR 350m for next-generation battery R&D (2025-2027), and EUR 570m under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (2025-2026) for heavy-duty charging corridors. The plan also delivers a targeted CO2-standards flexibility allowing 2025-2027 combined-year compliance for cars and vans, and the launch of the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance.

Germany's Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz (LkSG), promulgated 16 July 2021 (BGBl. I 2021 S. 2959), requires German-headquartered companies to conduct mandatory human-rights and environmental due diligence across their own operations and direct suppliers (with cause-based obligations extending to indirect suppliers). Enforced by BAFA with administrative fines up to EUR 8 million or 2% of global annual turnover for firms with revenue ≥ EUR 400 million. The act applies to ~3,000 German corporates from 1 January 2023 (≥3,000 employees) and was extended to ~5,000 firms from 1 January 2024 (≥1,000 employees). A September 2025 cabinet amendment removed the annual-reporting obligation and narrowed sanctionable omissions to serious violations.