Trend EU industrial policy moves to direct support for strategic production and supply-chain resilience

Summary

The EU's response to the changed environment is to rebalance openness and economic security. Through the European Chips Act, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Battery Regulation it is building domestic capacity and diversifying supply in semiconductors, critical minerals, clean technologies and batteries. The Competitiveness Compass and the Clean Industrial Deal place these measures within a broader effort to raise production bases and supply-chain resilience in strategic industries. Alongside them the EU has widened economic-security instruments such as trade defence, investment screening and controls on foreign subsidies. The report characterises the overall direction as keeping rules-based trade and openness while protecting strategic industries, seeking a balance between openness and protection, regulation and support, and the transatlantic alliance and strategic autonomy.