Europe's steel industry has raised alarms that the draft Industrial Accelerator Act, as currently written, risks channeling public funding for low-carbon steel toward producers outside the EU. 

The proposal requires that at least 25% of steel in public procurement and support schemes be low-carbon, but notably lacks any binding requirement for that steel to be European-made. 

Industry leaders have welcomed the Act's broader goal of stimulating demand for low-carbon steel, acknowledging it as a necessary step to unlock investment, but are calling for stronger "Made in Europe" provisions. 

The European Steel Association (EUROFER) Director General Axel Eggert stressed that steel is foundational to Europe's clean energy, automotive, and defense sectors, and argued it should be explicitly classified as a strategic industry. He emphasized that genuine European autonomy depends on enforcing robust local production requirements, warning that omitting them would be difficult to justify given today's turbulent geopolitical landscape.