‘We’ll be a museum’: EU heavyweights back industrial accelerator as China shock fears grow

AI Summary

Key European Union member states including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Poland have shown tentative support for the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), aimed at regulating investments from China and other countries in the EU. The debate reflects growing EU-China tensions amid concerns over trade and economic sovereignty.

Major EU members offered qualified support for the bloc’s flagship industrial plans on Thursday in the first debate over a proposal that has deepened tensions with China. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland all accepted the broad parameters of the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), which would put strict conditions on investments into the union from China and other countries, even as they quibbled over red tape, timescales and how open the plan should be to non-EU...