The debate around EU Preference is intensifying further as EU leaders meet for a turning point retreat in a historic Belgian castle.
On 2 February 2026, European Commission Executive Vice-President (EVP) Stéphane Séjourné, in charge of prosperity and industrial strategy, published an op-ed entitled ‘Made in Europe: A call for the European Preference’. The opinion piece was co-signed by representatives from European businesses. The main idea of the article is simple and clear: Because the liberal world of free trade becomes restricted, Europe needs an industrial policy based on EU Preference in strategic sectors. Concretely, the EU wants to protect its industry and reduce its trade deficit with China. In the last part, EVP Séjourné strikes a balance by adding that “Europe’s openness to its trusted partners” should be ensured. How exactly this delicate balance between openness and protecting is kept remains difficult. The newly proposed European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) that is the tool of choice to invest hundreds of billions of Euros in strategic technology sectors contains an article on EU Preference (article 10), which can potentially exclude any non-EU country from participating.
Even within the EU, this approach of EU Preference and top-down industrial policy is not without criticism. MEP Christian Ehler (EPP, Germany) is a leading member of the European Parliament committee on technology, research and energy (ITRE). He puts forward in an opinion piece that the EU Preference approach will not solve the EU’s structural issues, such as high costs and the fragmentation of the EU single market. He also argues that this approach might lock in competition and innovation on existing technologies, instead of pushing innovation further. In this context, Ehler specifically mentions the example of Galileo, the EU’s satellite navigation system, that would not be able to operate without atomic clocks from Switzerland.
These fundamental and consequential topics of EU Preference, single market integration and strategic technologies were on the agenda of a high-profile EU leaders’ retreat on 12 February 2026 in the Alden Biesen castle in rural Belgium. The EU heads of state and government, as well as the EU Presidents von der Leyen, Costa and Metsola met informally in the presence of Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta to find ways to change gears in the slowing competitiveness agenda (“from Draghi to reality”). At the retreat, French President Macron advocated for EU Preference and massive public investment through joint EU borrowing. This public investment should go to strategic technologies. Macron said that as the EU budget and taxes cannot be increased, joint borrowing is the only way. However, this issue is very controversial in the EU, with countries such as Germany being strongly opposed to more joint EU debt. Another key element of the debate is the further integration of the EU single market: Enrico Letta concretely proposed to move from the ‘single market’ to ‘one market’. This next level would finally bring together the integration of the financial markets (through the Savings and Investments Union), the integration of energy markets, and the integration of telecoms and digital networks in the EU. While further integration might indeed bring significant benefits for the EU’s single market, these initiatives remain controversial and have been blocked on the agenda for quite some time (remember the capital markets union, for example). One possible way forward was charted by Commission President von der Leyen. She suggested that if progress remains stalled by the end of this year, willing EU Member States would move ahead without the others – the so-called ‘Europe of two speeds’ or, in EU terminology, ‘enhanced cooperation’. The retreat also addressed the EU Preference / Made in Europe discussion. At the meeting, leaders tasked the Commission to set up a list of sector dependencies where EU companies could then get preferential treatment (think cars or semiconductors). This list would certainly be a step towards the direction that EVP Séjourné laid out in his op-ed ‘Made in Europe’ mentioned above.
Finally, two important developments took place. On 6 February 2026, India and the European Union launched exploratory talks that could lead to association negotiations for Horizon Europe. In addition, on 24 February 2026, the Council approved the signature of a broad package of agreements between the EU and Switzerland (Bilaterals III). While the agreement on Switzerland’s participation in EU programmes was already signed in November 2025 and provisionally applied from early 2025, this decision marks the way for the signature of the broad package of agreements. These will be signed in Brussels on 2 March 2026 by the President of the Swiss Confederation Guy Parmelin and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, marking an important milestone in Swiss–EU relations.