For several months, Paris has been actively lobbying the European Union. The French government asserts that Europe’s competitiveness can no longer rely solely on open markets and global competition. Instead, it advocates for a robust industrial policy, a clear European preference in strategic sectors, and a deliberate reduction of dependencies, particularly on China. Within the European Commission, Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné is championing the proposed regulation for industrial acceleration. Despite internal compromises that have tempered its initial ambitions, France maintains an assertive stance. It now seeks to broaden the scope of this text: European preference mechanisms in public procurement, purchasing, and subsidies would no longer be restricted to clean technologies, energy-intensive industries, and electric vehicles, but would extend to areas such as shipbuilding, railway equipment, and the chemical sector.
Coincidentally, these very sectors are precisely where Franco-Moroccan industrial cooperation has achieved its most significant advancements. France likely stands as the EU member state whose productive apparatus is most deeply intertwined with that of Morocco. This unique entanglement defines its position: Paris champions a stringent “Made in Europe” while simultaneously having cultivated a two-decade-long co-industrialization strategy with a nation outside the EU. In the automotive industry, facilities like Renault in Tangier and Stellantis in Kenitra now function as seamless extensions of French production lines. Component manufacturers in Morocco supply directly to European industrial sites. A similar trend is evident in aeronautics, where companies such as Safran, Daher, and Latécoère have progressively integrated Moroccan industrial capabilities into their value chains. The Kingdom has evolved beyond a mere subcontracting workshop; it now actively contributes to the competitiveness of French and broader European industrial output. This integration is now reaching into the most strategic domains, including electric vehicle batteries, green hydrogen, critical materials, port infrastructure, and digital technologies.
“France is probably the Member State whose productive apparatus is most intertwined with that of Morocco”
Paris’s objective is not to isolate Europe but to prevent a broad “Made with Europe” approach, encompassing all eighty or so of the Union’s commercial partners indiscriminately, from diluting the essence of European preference. France advocates for a more discerning strategy: differentiating countries that genuinely contribute to Europe’s competitiveness and supply security from those that remain simple external suppliers—or even pose a threat to European sovereignty.
To what extent can this vision garner wider support? By mid-July, the 27 member states will be invited to conduct an initial political assessment of the ongoing work in the Council regarding the industrial acceleration regulation. Germany’s stance will be pivotal. Berlin has long viewed French proposals for European industrial preference with caution, primarily due to concerns about commercial restrictions from Beijing and potential Chinese retaliation against its automotive industry. However, under pressure from an unprecedented industrial crisis and a domestic political debate intensified by the rise of the AfD, Germany can no longer simply champion traditional free trade. Could a selective openness to trusted partners offer a potential compromise between Paris and Berlin? This concept will ultimately shape the future of the France-Morocco industrial partnership. While France has never officially requested Morocco’s inclusion among future trusted partners, its entire industrial and diplomatic strategy positions the Kingdom as a natural candidate for such a designation.
The debate will also unfold within the European Parliament, where two French rapporteurs hold crucial positions in the examination of the regulation. A particular responsibility will fall upon them, as well as upon the French delegations: to ensure that the new regulatory boundaries currently being drawn by the Union do not jeopardize the future of the Moroccan-French industrial partnership.
