European industry faces unprecedented challenges. The labor productivity gap with the United States persists at around 20%, mainly due to lagging production and adoption of digital technologies. More alarmingly, the European manufacturing sector has lost approximately 27,000 jobs per month over the past two years, with factory closures eroding the continent’s industrial base.

In this context of urgency, the Commission proposes four legislative pillars that seek a turning point in European competitiveness.

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1. Industrial Accelerator Act.

This law is a central measure for the reindustrialization of Europe and the strengthening of its economic security. Its fundamental purpose is to boost industrial capacities in key strategic sectors for the Union’s autonomy.

• Creation of “Lead Markets”: The initiative seeks to establish reference markets for manufacturing in Europe. That is, sales ecosystems where the EU guarantees that its products (such as green steel or European batteries) have assured buyers because procurement rules prohibit or make it difficult to purchase other products that do not meet those standards of “European content” and low carbon footprint. It is basically ensuring that there is a market for European industry.
• Permit Streamlining: It will introduce mechanisms to speed up the granting of permits for industrial access to energy and industrial decarbonization projects.
• Standards and Local Content: The law provides for the creation of a low-carbon product label (which will serve as a technical standard necessary to implement other support measures), and the application of EU sustainability, resilience and minimum content requirements on certain strategic products (such as battery components or clean energy technologies) in both public and private sector procurements in strategic areas.

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2. EU Inc. 28th Regime (28th Regime)

This initiative is integrated into the pillar to close the innovation gap and seeks to provide a predictable legal environment for companies to operate on a large scale.

• Unified Legal Framework: It will establish a single set of rules so that companies can incorporate, operate and grow throughout the EU under a single regime, avoiding the need to navigate 27 different national legal systems.
• Boosting emerging companies: The objective is to create fertile ground for the development of start-ups, scale-ups and the emergence of new European “unicorns”.
• Elimination of establishment barriers: Directly addresses the current difficulty of establishing a permanent presence in other member states, a process that is currently considered cumbersome due to divergent national corporate laws.

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3. Public Procurement Act (Public Procurement Act)

The reform of public procurement is critical, given that this sector accounts for approximately 15% of EU GDP, equivalent to about €2.5 trillion annually.

• Simplification and Speed: The objective is to simplify and accelerate bidding procedures to ensure the best use of public spending. Currently, the framework is considered fragmented by numerous sectorial acts that generate uncertainty and inconsistency in its application.
• Value over Price Criteria: The law seeks to generalize the use of criteria not only related to price, prioritizing sustainability and resilience in public procurement.

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4. European Product Act

This regulation is presented as a tool to improve the functioning of the Single Market at the European level.

• Harmonization against Fragmentation: The law is tasked with improving the free movement of goods by addressing persistent fragmentation in product rules.
• Integration of the Single Market Strategy: It is presented together with other regulations, such as the Construction Services Act, to remove technical barriers that prevent companies from taking advantage of the full scale of the European domestic market.
• Promoting Circularity: This law is expected to work in conjunction with the future Circular Economy Law to harmonize rules on packaging and labeling, boosting the rate of circular material use which is currently well below the target of 24% by 2030.