The French Business Movement (Medef) has unveiled its continental program. A measure based on European preference is favored by Emmanuel Macron but is debated within the old continent.

Two months before the European elections, the Medef program is ready. After consulting more than 1,200 business leaders, the movement chaired by Patrick Martin notably brought back to the forefront an old project based on European preference. An idea that is having difficulty getting across in certain countries on the old continent. This is the Buy European Act.

The Buy European Act is a continental protectionism project whose idea was launched in 2007 by Nicolas Sarkozy, meeting with mixed success at the time. The objective? Require European SMEs to have a share of public procurement reserved for them. In other words, propose that European public administrations make their purchases from partners located in Europe. A system based on the “Buy American Act”, in force in the United States.

And precisely, as the Europeans approach, Medef has decided to promote this famous Buy European Act. A measure which directly comes up against German reluctance, in the same way as those of liberal northern countries such as Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

This project would promote a “made in Europe label” based on environmental and social criteria. This is why countries with a strong focus on exports, like Germany, could turn against France, or even accuse it of being soft on a return to a certain national protectionism.

The President of the Republic is rather favorable to this European protectionism project. “Europe cannot be the only place where there is no Buy European Act” he estimated in November 2022. Same story on the left, and in particular among environmentalist senator Yannick Jador. According to him, “it is suicidal not to equip ourselves with a Buy European Act to favor, in our public markets, production on European soil. Public markets in Europe represent 14% of GDP, 1,800 billion dinars. ‘euros per year!’ he explains in a column for Le Monde published on April 4, 2023. Emmanuel Macron was already considering the implementation of a system “like the Americans” in October 2023 in the columns of The Guardian.