The Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), proposed by the European Commission (the Commission) in March 2026, introduces a “Made in Europe” criterion that steers public procurement and public support in the European Union (EU) towards products manufactured in Europe. The Commission’s proposal treats content originating in countries that have a customs union with the EU as equivalent to Union origin, subject to certain conditions. The automotive compromise reached by France and Germany on 15-16 October 2026, by contrast, confines the scope to the EU member states and to those European partners that formed part of the EU internal market on 1 January 2020. Under this definition, the United Kingdom and Norway fall within the scope on a conditional basis, whereas Türkiye falls outside it.
This report examines the development on three levels: the EU’s new approach to industrial policy, the asymmetric interdependence between Türkiye and the EU, and the architecture of the Customs Union, which leaves public procurement and services outside its scope. Its central argument is that the principal driver of Türkiye’s exclusion is the migration of EU industrial policy instruments from the customs tariff to public procurement and public support. This migration has turned a gap in coverage that the Customs Union has carried for thirty years into a strategic vulnerability.
The Franco-German compromise is an intergovernmental position that does not yet carry legal force. The final text will be shaped in negotiations between the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of the EU (the Council). The report recommends that Türkiye assemble an equivalence package demonstrating its readiness to meet the conditions envisaged for the United Kingdom, and that it advocate a condition-based “trusted partner” category in place of the date-based criterion.