France Pushes for EU-Only 'Made in Europe' Rule, Leaving Britain Out
France is pushing to exclude the United Kingdom from the European Union's Made in Europe industrial policy.
At an EU industry ministers meeting in Brussels on 24 September 2026, Paris argued the label should cover only the EU27. The Guardian
French industry minister Sébastien Martin told ministers that "European taxpayers' money should support European workers and European factories." He said Britain had chosen to leave the EU. He drew a line between those who chose the European project and those who left.
French Europe minister Benjamin Haddad applied the same logic to public procurement and public support schemes. Procurement means government purchases. Support schemes mean public funding programmes. "If you are not part of the internal market and not contributing to its financial capacity, you don't get the same kind of protection," Haddad said. The internal market is the EU's shared market with common trade rules.
The fight centres on the Industrial Accelerator Act. It would require public authorities to favour European products when spending public money in sectors including renewable technologies and electric cars. The plan is still under negotiation. It aims to shield European firms from Chinese competitors backed by state subsidies.
Berlin disagrees. Germany backs a broader "Made with Europe" rule that would include the UK and other allies. German economic affairs minister Katherina Reiche said "partner countries must be included in the union-origin principle on condition of reciprocity." Union origin means how the law defines a European product. Reciprocity means mutual market opening. Sweden's outgoing deputy prime minister Ebba Busch told the meeting "we always miss the Brits."
A divided Council
The split reaches beyond Paris and Berlin. Sweden and the Czech Republic have opposed strict limits on which non-EU countries can join the Made in EU law, according to Reuters. The scope argument has already caused delay. The EU delayed its Made in Europe plan after disagreements over scope, Reuters reported in February.
The legal base is forming through the Clean Industrial Deal. It sets "Made in EU" and low-carbon requirements for public procurement and public support schemes in key strategic sectors, according to the European Commission. Low carbon means lower emissions in production. The Commission has separately set out measures to help cars move to clean mobility. Cars are governed by EU CO2 standards under which all new cars and vans registered in Europe will be zero-emission by 2035.
Industry voices cross the political divide. The EU car industry has called for the UK to be fully included in new made in Europe rules that threaten to shut out British manufacturers, The Guardian reported in July. London agrees. The UK fears the laws could jeopardise billions of pounds worth of trade if British goods are not classed as European.
London's reset calculation
The procurement row now meets the EU-UK reset. Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned that planned EU rules to help European manufacturers would damage the UK. He raised the Made in Europe plans with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly earlier in the week of 24 September 2026. Burnham gave a speech at the UN General Assembly on 22 September 2026.
British finance minister John Healey planned to urge EU counterparts not to exclude Britain from the bloc's Made in Europe policy, Reuters reported.
The EU-UK reset summit was postponed when Keir Starmer stood down as prime minister. As of 24 September 2026, no date had been fixed for the reset talks due in 2026 since Burnham took office. British officials expect the summit will take place in November 2026.
The broader context here is procurement as industrial policy. Local-content preferences, union-origin rules and low-carbon criteria steer demand toward home supply chains. Paris ties them to internal market membership and budget payments. Berlin says reciprocity is enough. That approach would keep car and clean-tech value chains across the Channel intact.
Looking at what this means for the negotiations, three points will decide the outcome. The first is legal definition: whether European means EU27 or a wider group with reciprocal access. The second is sectoral coverage: whether renewable technologies and electric cars set a precedent for other strategic sectors. The third is linkage to the reset: whether London can turn a bilateral summit into third-country participation before the rule hardens.
For businesses watching closely, the risk is a split. A narrow rule would force UK suppliers to restructure origin to keep access to EU-funded tenders, while EU buyers would face a smaller pool of qualifying suppliers. A reciprocal Made with Europe model would preserve cross-Channel sourcing but need enforcement for market access and subsidy discipline. Neither path removes the driver behind both plans, competition with state-subsidised Chinese capacity, which continues to shape procurement strategy in Brussels and London.
