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

The European Commission and the US announced on 24 April 2026 the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a strategic partnership on critical minerals, accompanied by an EU-US Critical Minerals Action Plan. The framework deepens cooperation on supply-chain security across the strategic raw-materials list shared between the two jurisdictions — joint financing, recycling, mutual recognition of strategic- project status under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (filed: 2024-05-23-eu-crma-entry-into-force) and US IRA §30D / §45X frameworks (filed: 2022-08-16-us-inflation-reduction-act). The agreement is positioned as a joint response to non-market practices in third-country supply chains for the named materials.

The European Commission on 4 March 2026 adopted COM(2026) 100 final, the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), the central horizontal industrial- policy instrument of the 2024-29 Commission term. The proposal targets raising EU manufacturing's share of GDP from 14.3% (2024) to at least 20% by 2035 via three pillars: (i) demand-side "Made in EU" and low-carbon public-procurement preferences for strategic sectors; (ii) FDI conditionality on investments above €100 million from countries with >40% global manufacturing share in batteries, EVs, solar PV or critical raw materials; (iii) accelerated permitting through a one-stop-shop and member-state-designated Industrial Acceleration Areas. The IAA is a proposal — co-decision adoption is expected mid-to-late 2027.

On 16 December 2025 the European Commission adopted the Communication on a Battery Booster Strategy (later published in the Official Journal as C/2026/682), part of the EU Automotive Package presented alongside the CO2 emission-standards review, the Automotive Omnibus simplification, and the Corporate Vehicle Decarbonisation initiative. The Battery Booster envelopes EUR 1.8bn of EU-budget support for the European battery value chain: EUR 1.5bn from the Innovation Fund as interest-free loans for European battery cell producers ramping to giga-scale output (delivered through a dedicated Battery Booster Facility, with the implementing Commission Decision in stakeholder consultation through 15 March 2026), plus EUR 300m for critical raw materials projects in Europe. The strategy is the first standalone EU industrial-finance instrument targeted exclusively at battery cell manufacturing, and is paired with RESourceEU (3 Dec 2025) and the Industrial Accelerator Act proposal (4 Mar 2026) to stitch together upstream CRM, midstream cell production and downstream automotive demand.

The European Commission approved a EUR 90.8 million (USD ~104.4 million) Innovation Fund grant for LG Energy Solution Wrocław Limited Liability Company on 5 November 2025, funding the "46inEU — Powering the Future: 46 Cylinders, Infinite Possibilities in Europe" project at LG's existing Wrocław, Poland site. CINEA (the EU's Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency) lists 46inEU's status as "Grant signed" under the Innovation Fund's 2024 Battery call (IF24 Battery), which produces Li-ion NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminium) cylindrical cells for electric vehicles. The grant is one of five signed under the IF24 Battery call's EUR 643 million cohort announced by CINEA on 10 November 2025.

The European Commission approved a EUR 200 million (USD ~230.3 million) Innovation Fund grant for Automotive Cells Company (ACC) on 3 November 2025, funding the "ACCEPT" (Automotive Cells Company European Production Take-off) project — five new Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion battery production lines with a combined 15.7 GWh annual capacity across ACC's two gigafactories at Billy-Berclau-Douvrin, France. ACCEPT was one of five EV battery-cell projects (alongside Verkor/AGATHE, LG Energy Solution/46inEU, Novo Energy/NOVO One, and Leclanché/WGF2G) confirmed under the EU Innovation Fund's 2024 Battery call, together worth EUR 643 million; grant agreements with CINEA were formally signed on 10 November 2025. At EUR 200 million, ACCEPT is the single largest award in the five-project cohort.

The European Commission's Innovation Fund, administered by CINEA, awarded French battery-cell maker Verkor a EUR 19.5 million grant under the Innovation Fund 2024 Battery call for its "AGATHE" (Advanced Gigafactory Aiming at Tempering greenhouse gases Emissions) project, which aims to double NMC cell production capacity at Verkor's Dunkirk gigafactory from 8 to 16 GWh using AI-driven manufacturing and an on-site pre-recycling facility targeting >95% scrap recovery. The award was one of five EV battery-cell projects (Verkor/AGATHE, Automotive Cells Company/ACCEPT, Novo Energy/NOVO One, Leclanché/WGF2G, LG Energy Solution/46inEU) confirmed under the same call, together worth EUR 643 million; grant agreements with CINEA were formally signed on 10 November 2025. Verkor-linked entities also received separate grants in the same call round: Giga Verkor Immo (EUR 38.1 million) and Rekovr (EUR 18.6 million), covering the factory real-estate and recycling arms respectively.

The European Commission approved a EUR 201.4 million (USD ~231.9 million) Innovation Fund grant for Novo Energy Production AB, funding the "NOVO One" gigafactory project in Gothenburg, Sweden, under the Innovation Fund 2024 Battery call (IF24 Battery). CINEA lists NOVO One's status as "Grant signed," one of five EV battery-cell projects (alongside ACCEPT and AGATHE in France, WGF2G in Germany, and 46inEU in Poland) confirmed under the same call, together worth EUR 643 million, with grant agreements formally signed on 10 November 2025. Novo Energy — originally a 50/50 joint venture between Volvo Cars and Northvolt targeting up to 50 GWh/year of NMC cell capacity — came under Volvo's full ownership in 2025 after Northvolt's bankruptcy left the venture without its battery-technology partner.

On 25 March 2025 the European Commission adopted the first list of 47 Strategic Projects inside the EU under Article 7 of the Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252), followed on 4 June 2025 by 13 Strategic Projects located in third countries — 60 designations in total. The 47 EU projects span 13 Member States and 14 strategic raw materials, with an expected EUR 22.5bn capital-investment envelope; the 13 third-country projects require a further EUR 5.5bn. Designation triggers fast-track permitting (max 27 months for extraction, 15 months for processing/recycling), preferential access to EU/EIB/EBRD finance, and Member State priority status, operationalising the CRMA's 2030 benchmarks (≥10% extraction, ≥40% processing, ≥25% recycling, ≤65% single-country dependence).

On 19 March 2025 the European Commission adopted the European Steel and Metals Action Plan (COM(2025) 122 final, IP/25/805) — the first standalone sector-specific industrial-policy framework for the EU steel and base-metals industries (~2.6m direct + indirect jobs). The Plan bundles six work strands — affordable energy, trade defence and circularity (including announced replacement of the post-30 Jun 2026 steel safeguard with a "highly effective" successor measure and a melt-and-pour origin requirement), lead-market measures (Steel and Metals Industrial Decarbonisation Bank with a EUR 100bn target and a EUR 1bn pilot auction in 2025, "Made in EU" criteria in public and defence procurement), capacity and investment funding, scrap and critical-input circularity (including CBAM extension to downstream steel and aluminium products by end-2025), and skills / just transition.

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.

The European Commission published Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2754 on 29 October 2024 imposing definitive countervailing duties on imports of new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) originating in China, effective the day after publication. Following a 13-month investigation initiated by Commissioner Dombrovskis in October 2023, the rates layered on top of the existing 10% MFN duty are: BYD 17.0%, Geely 18.8%, SAIC 35.3%, Tesla 7.8% (individually-investigated), 17.0% for sampled cooperating producers, 20.7% for non-sampled cooperating producers, 35.3% for non-cooperating producers. Duties are payable for five years from entry into force unless reviewed earlier. The measure followed a member-state vote with Germany voting against and France/Italy in favour.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1735 - the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) - was published in the Official Journal on 22 June 2024 and entered into force on 12 July 2024 (twenty days after OJ publication). It sets a binding target that at least 40% of the EU's annual deployment needs for net-zero technologies be manufactured within the EU by 2030. It establishes a streamlined permitting regime for Net-Zero Strategic Projects (NZSP) capped at 18 months for construction permits (9 months for smaller projects), creates Net-Zero Regulatory Sandboxes, and requires public procurers and auction designers to include resilience and sustainability criteria that effectively favour non-China-sourced equipment. The Act is the manufacturing-capacity complement to the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA, Reg 2024/1252, filed separately) and was explicitly designed to close the EU's competitive gap with US IRA manufacturing incentives.

The EU Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252) entered into force on 23 May 2024 after publication in the EU Official Journal on 3 May 2024. The Act sets binding 2030 benchmarks for the Union: ≥10% of annual consumption from domestic extraction, ≥40% from domestic processing, ≥25% from domestic recycling, and a strict ≤65% concentration limit from any single third country for each strategic raw material. It establishes a list of 17 strategic raw materials and 34 critical raw materials, creates a "Strategic Project" fast-track permitting regime (≤27 months for extraction, ≤15 months for recycling), and mandates joint purchasing and supply-risk stress tests for large EU manufacturers.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 establishes a comprehensive EU statutory framework for all battery categories (portable, SLI, LMT, EV, industrial), imposing supply-chain due-diligence obligations for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and natural graphite; mandatory recycled-content thresholds; carbon-footprint declarations; a digital battery passport; and ambitious collection and recycling-efficiency targets, with rolling application dates running from February 2024 through August 2036. It repeals Battery Directive 2006/66/EC and applies to every economic operator placing batteries on the EU market, binding every EV, consumer-electronics, and stationary-storage supply chain that relies on DRC cobalt, Australian/Chilean lithium, Indonesian/Philippine nickel, and Chinese/Mozambican graphite.