Seven Organisations Call for the Industrial Accelerator Act to Drive Industrial Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe

Energy Policy Group, Bellona Europa, Reform Institute, Clean Air Task Force, Institut Cirkulární Ekonomiky, Asociace pro mezinárodní otázky, and Center for the Study of Democracy have released a joint statement about the Industrial Accelerator Act and its potential benefits for advancing a competitive and clean industrial base in Central and Eastern Europe.

Signed by seven organisations, the statement is addressing the potential opportunities offered by the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) to support decarbonisation, strengthen competitiveness, and develop clean manufacturing in Central and Eastern Europe. The statement calls for clear EU labels for green and low-carbon steel, cement, and chemical; green public procurement mandates for low-carbon industrial products; private offtake agreements; and equitable access to funding to ensure a resilient and regionally balanced industrial transition that benefits both CEE and Europe as a whole.

Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies who relied more on energy-intensive industries, now face problems in modernising their industrial base to remain competitive in a low-carbon world. Industry accounts for between 21% and 33% of national GDP in the region, making it more important for domestic economies than in some other EU member states. CEE produces nearly one-fifth of EU’s steel and one-third of its cement, accounting for a third of EU’s consumption of these materials. Yet, growing challenges such as rising energy costs, tight public budgets, demographic trends, labour shortages, a lack of political drive, and limited institutional capacity hinder industrial transformation in the region.

The Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) represents a unique opportunity to address these challenges by speeding up permitting procedures for industrial decarbonisation, improving the business case for clean projects and technologies, de-risking investments, and creating demand for clean, high-value industrial products. If tailored appropriately, the IAA could transform CEE’s traditional manufacturing-dependent economies into strategic clean industry hubs integrated into European value chains.

To ensure industrial competitiveness without deepening intra-EU disparities, the EU must pay attention to the narrower fiscal margins and increased barriers to attracting private capital in the CEE region. The same applies to the potential implications of “EU content” requirements, which must be designed carefully to avoid inadvertently widening competitiveness gaps within the Single Market.

In these circumstances, the organisations have the following recommendations:

1. Combine carbon content and circularity criteria with EU content requirements for procurement policies, to prioritise clean European production and strengthen the value chains of downstream industries that rely on these products.
2. Develop clear common EU labels for green and low-carbon steel, cement, and chemicals aligned with long-term climate commitments and relevant proposed sectoral legislation (such as ESPR and CPR), going beyond the existing benchmarks of the EU Emissions Trading System.
3. Open the way for GPP mandates for low-carbon industrial products and for introducing annual gradual national targets, beginning with requirements to incorporate green criteria in the evaluation and award phases of public procurement (i.e. bonus points to bids using low-carbon materials), eventually leading to mandatory quotas. Priority sectors should include construction works for highways, roads, railways, bridges, and public buildings, where public procurement in CEE amounts to  4.5 Mt of steel and 15.6 Mt of cement annually. Impact of procurement costs can be manageable – procurement costs would increase by 0.4 – 0.9% for cement, and 0.6 – 1.3% for steel if low-carbon criteria were adopted for these products, while the impact on public procurement budgets in CEE would range from +0.11% in Austria to +1.35% in Romania
4. It is important that the private sector gradually moves beyond voluntary green procurement commitments and increases its use of offtake agreements since most industrial materials are sold through private supply chains (69% of the EU’s cement and 89% of its steel).
5. Contribute to scaling up funding and streamlining permitting for cross-border projects, such as electricity grids, the development of hydrogen and CO₂ infrastructure, and foster regional cooperations and integrated planning, with particular attention to addressing disproportionately high energy costs in Central and Eastern Europe.
6. Bring clear commitments to ensuring equitable and regionally fair access to EU-level funding, to ensure that the IAA enables industrial transformation across the EU.

The joint statement signed by seven organisations details the importance of implementing the Industrial Accelerator Act in Central and Eastern European, tailored to the needs and factors of the region.