For several months, Paris has been actively lobbying the European Union. The French government asserts that European competitiveness can no longer solely depend on open markets and global competition. Instead, it necessitates a robust industrial policy, a preference for European products in strategic sectors, and a reduction of dependencies, particularly on China. Within the European Commission, Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné champions the proposed regulation on industrial acceleration. Despite internal compromises that have scaled back its initial ambitions, France maintains an assertive stance. It now seeks to broaden the text’s scope: mechanisms for European preference in public procurement, purchasing, and subsidies would extend beyond clean technologies, energy-intensive industries, and electric vehicles to encompass sectors like shipbuilding, railway equipment, and chemicals.
These very sectors are precisely where Franco-Moroccan industrial collaboration is most advanced. France likely stands as the EU member state whose production apparatus is most deeply intertwined with Morocco’s. This unique situation presents Paris with a singular challenge: while advocating for a stringent “Made in Europe” approach, it has simultaneously cultivated a co-industrialization strategy over the past two decades with a non-EU country. In the automotive sector, Renault’s plants in Tangier and Stellantis’s facilities in Kenitra now function as extensions of French production lines. Component manufacturers in Morocco supply parts directly to European industrial sites. A similar trend is evident in aeronautics, where companies like Safran, Daher, and Latécoère have progressively integrated Moroccan industrial capabilities into their value chains. The Kingdom is no longer merely a subcontracting workshop; it actively contributes to the competitiveness of French and European industrial output. This integration now extends to highly strategic areas, including batteries for electric vehicles, 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” concept, indiscriminately encompassing the Union’s eighty or so commercial partners, from diluting the essence of European preference. France advocates for a more discerning approach: distinguishing countries that genuinely contribute to European competitiveness and supply security from those that remain mere external suppliers – or even pose a threat to European sovereignty. This is a critical point in pan-African current affairs, highlighting Morocco’s strategic position.
To what extent can this vision be shared? By mid-July, the 27 member states will be invited to conduct an initial political assessment of the work undertaken in the Council on the industrial acceleration regulation. Germany’s position will be decisive. Berlin has long viewed French proposals for European industrial preference with reservation. Germany’s powerful export sector feared trade restrictions from Beijing and potential Chinese retaliations against its automotive industry. However, under the pressure of an unprecedented industrial crisis and a domestic political debate intensified by the rise of the AfD, Germany can no longer simply champion classic free trade. Could selective openness to trusted partners represent a point of compromise between Paris and Berlin? The future of the France-Morocco industrial partnership hinges on this very notion. 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 treatment.
The battle 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, and upon the French delegations: to ensure that the new regulatory boundaries currently being drawn by the Union do not jeopardize the future of the Morocco-France industrial partnership.
