Europe's carmakers have a message for Brussels about its plan to reward "Made in EU" production: do not punish the factories they already run in Türkiye.
The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, the industry body known as ACEA, laid out that case this week in a position paper on the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act. The Act is meant to strengthen Europe's industrial base and cut its dependence on outside suppliers in strategic sectors, and ACEA says it backs that goal. What it does not want is a rulebook that, in its current form, "risks disrupting established value chains and stranding investments made under the existing regulatory framework."
The sticking point is geography. A preference for building inside the European Union's 27 member states is legitimate, ACEA argues, but it should arrive gradually and carry targeted exemptions. The association wants the Act's toolkit to "take into account ACEA members' existing operations in the EU's closely integrated neighborhood of Türkiye and Morocco." Investments made in good faith, it said, should not be rendered obsolete by a change in the rules.
For Türkiye, that neighborly clause is the whole story. The country has spent three decades turning itself into one of the assembly lines of the European car market. Ford, Stellantis through its longtime Fiat partner Tofaş, Toyota, Hyundai and Renault all build vehicles or major components in Türkiye, much of it bound for European showrooms. Since the 1995 Customs Union with the EU, those cars and parts have crossed into the single market without tariffs, which is exactly what made the plants worth building. Automotive is reliably one of Türkiye's largest export sectors.
That integration is now the argument. ACEA is not lobbying on Ankara's behalf. It is defending its own members' balance sheets. The effect, though, is to put Türkiye's role on the record in Brussels, in the industry's own words, at the moment the EU is deciding how tightly to draw the "Made in EU" line.
The association asked for more than an exemption. It wants European content measured at the level of the finished vehicle rather than component by component, so that research, engineering and skilled labor count toward the total. It wants the United Kingdom treated as an equal partner inside the framework, given how tightly British and continental supply chains are stitched together. And it wants the whole plan backed by real incentives, realistic timelines for shifting production, and simpler reporting, so the Act lifts the appeal of building in Europe instead of only lifting the cost.
None of this is settled. The Industrial Accelerator Act is a proposal, not law, and ACEA's paper is an opening bid in a negotiation that will run for months.
The direction of travel is what matters for Türkiye. Europe wants to bring strategic industry back home, and it is writing rules to reward companies that build there. Türkiye's pitch, made this time by Europe's carmakers rather than by Turkish officials, is that "at home" already takes in the plants around Bursa and Kocaeli. Where Brussels draws the line will help decide whether that stays true.