The Commission's work programme for 2025 announced a legislative proposal for an Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2025. Decarbonisation was later dropped from the title.

Initially mentioned in the Competitiveness Compass in January 2025, the Act would build on parts of the provisions for renewable energy and the Net Zero Industry Act to speed up permitting and clean transition of energy-intensive sectors as well as energy infrastructure projects of common interest.

The Act was brought forward again as part of Commission's communication on the Clean Industrial Deal, adopted on 26 February 2025. According to the text, the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act would introduce clean, resilient, circular, cybersecure criteria to strengthen demand for EU-made clean products and deliver clean European supply for energy-intensive sectors. It would facilitate faster permitting for modernisation and decarbonisation efforts of, in example, steel production sites. Finally, the act should establish a low-carbon label, initially covering steel and then cement, to provide consumers with information on the carbon intensity of products. According to the Commission the label would help companies achieve a green premium for their products.

A key intended lever, to increase demand for low carbon products made in Europe, is to include minimum proportion or component criteria for these products in public contracts and tenders, as well as incorporating such criteria as conditionalities for certain state aid subsidies. 

A public consultation closed on the 'Have your say' page of the European Commission on 9 July 2025. 

On 19 June, the European Parliament adopted its resolution on the Commission's Clean Industrial Deal communication, in which it endorsed measures to simplify and digitize permitting procedures to speed up industrial decarbonisation and address permitting bottlenecks. Parliament calls upon the Commission to assess further measures to speed up judicial and administrative procedures, mentioning targeted exemption criteria for construction emissions and depositions for clean and net zero projects, storage and grid projects specifically. It also urged Member States to ensure the necessary capacity to deal with permitting requests.

The name change occurred when in her State of the European Union address on 10 September 2025, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referred to the initiative as the Industrial Accelerator Act. The name change was reportedly requested to allow for a broader sectoral and technological scope. 

While initially on the Commission's planning schedule for 10 December 2025, the proposal was postponed several times and is currently expected on 4 March 2026.

References:

• European Commission, Commission Work Programme 2025, Moving forward together: A Bolder, Simpler, Faster Union, COM(2025)45 final
• European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on A Competitiveness Compass for the EU, COM(2025) 30 final, 29 January 2025. 
• European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on The Clean Industrial Deal: A joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation, COM(2025) 85 final, 26 February 2025.
• European Commission, Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act - speeding up decarbonisation, Have your say webpage.
• European Commission, State of the Union 2025- Letter of intent, European Commission webpage
• European Parliament resolution of 19 June 2025 on the Clean Industrial Deal (2025/2656(RSP))

Author: Agnieszka Widuto, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu