Spain proposes opening the 'made in EU' to third countries

BrusselsThe European Union is making a major commitment to strategic autonomy in the face of the growing threat that China poses to the community bloc's competitiveness. Brussels' latest legislative proposals to boost industry include a criterion to prioritize European products over those manufactured outside the community's borders in public tenders in strategic sectors such as automotive, steel, clean technologies, semiconductors, and electric vehicles. It is the requirement known as made in EU (made in the European Union, in English).

Spain, however, proposes to make this condition more flexible and has submitted a proposal to its European partners in which it opens the door for third countries, such as China, to be able to benefit from the label under certain criteria. The Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, presented the initiative this Thursday to his counterparts during the meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council.

The Spanish executive proposes establishing three different geographical areas that could benefit from European preference depending on the industrial sector. Currently, Brussels' proposal is that 70% of a product's components, let's say for a car, must be manufactured in community territory for the manufacturer in question to be able to qualify for any aid. Now, however, the Spanish executive proposes that within this 70% components manufactured outside the EU can also be included, at different levels.

The first would be for the 27 member states and the second would include states of the European Economic Area, which includes Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland, and other reliable partners with whom there is effective reciprocity. According to the Spanish proposal, a minimum of 40% of the components would have to be manufactured in the EU and the remaining 30% could come from countries in the second group.

"Technological monopolies"

At the third level, Spain wants to include countries with which there is a trade treaty, customs union, or public procurement agreements, but also states that are considered a "technological monopoly", that is, that are the only global producers of a critical component. This would be the case of China, for example, which has the monopoly on electric car batteries.

The other relevant element of the Spanish proposal is that the criterion should not exclude an entire country if any of its products or manufacturers do not comply with the regulations, but rather that it should be analyzed sector by sector or, even, company by company. In this sense, it claims that the made in EU cannot be applied uniformly to all sectors, but that "it must evolve in accordance with the increase in European industrial capacity".