The proposal provides for "local content" and "Made in EU" requirements for public contracts and funding programs - including for key materials such as aluminum, cement and steel as well as for key technologies such as wind turbines, electrolysers and electric vehicles.

However, shortly after the presentation, numerous industry associations expressed clear skepticism.

"Not the big hit," says Thilo Brodtmann, Managing Director of the VDMA. The association represents the mechanical and plant engineering industry - a sector that is considered the backbone of Europe's industrial performance.

Further criticism comes from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA): in order to strengthen the industry in Germany and Europe, a broad mix of measures is needed - from a completed single market to further free trade and raw materials agreements, openness to technology and less regulation, as well as lower energy costs, further development of the Capital Markets Union and facilitation of transformation financing. "The IAA offers far too little here," emphasizes Hildegard Müller, President of the VDA, which represents the interests of manufacturers and suppliers in the German automotive industry.

The German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) also fears that the Commission will continue to regulate competitiveness on a small scale.

Industry does not suffer from too many foreign countries, but from too much effort

The IAA relies heavily on "local content". Preference is to be given to those who produce in Europe. This signals a willingness to shape industrial policy. But there are risks involved: Strengthening labels without reforming structures confuses symbolism with substance.

Europe's industry suffers less from international competition than from its own obstacles: Approval procedures take too long, standards diverge, the internal market remains fragmented. Digital business models often fail due to special national approaches. Europe's technological leadership - once a trademark - has become fragile in key areas.

Sovereignty is not a shopping list

Brodtmann formulates it cautiously: "Local content" requirements should be designed with restraint. A "Buy European" approach is only justified if security interests are specifically affected and there are no alternative instruments to reduce strategic dependencies.

It is true that there are critical technologies and raw materials where Europe is vulnerable. But economic sovereignty does not come about through blanket isolation.

A continent whose prosperity is based on exports can only afford protectionist reflexes to a limited extent. This makes one detail in the IAA draft all the more important: trading partners should not be excluded by "local content" rules. This principle must be maintained in the political process, warns the VDMA - also in order not to jeopardize the EU's credibility in free trade issues.

Europe cannot preach open markets and build closed doors at the same time.

Green steel, gray reality

The VDMA takes a positive view of the fact that the use of green steel is to be restricted to a limited area of application. Lead markets for climate-friendly products are considered a perennial industrial policy issue and can trigger innovations.

But here, too, it is the detail that counts: If additional requirements place a burden on the very machine and plant manufacturers that supply technologies for the climate targets, Europe could weaken its own basis for transformation.

The energy transition is inconceivable without European mechanical engineering expertise - from electrolysers and recycling plants to efficiency technologies. Anyone who confronts this industry with ever new verification requirements and quotas risks overregulation instead of acceleration.

The actual accelerator

The name "Industrial Accelerator Act" raises expectations: Acceleration. But it rarely comes from new rules - usually from fewer of them.

Less bureaucracy. Fewer national special paths. Less symbolic politics.

But also: More internal market. More technological ambition. More speed in terms of approvals, infrastructure and access to capital.

If Europe really wants to accelerate, it must release its own brakes.

Courage to leave a gap

The IAA is not a disaster. But it is not a liberating blow either. Perhaps this is precisely where its political character lies: no escalation, no radical isolation, no industrial policy solo effort.

But the central question remains: Is that enough in a world where other regions are operating with multi-billion dollar programs and strategic clarity?

Europe's competitiveness is not determined by the proportion of domestic value added on paper, but by whether companies can produce faster, more innovatively and more profitably here than elsewhere.

This requires fewer labels - and more determination.