On April 23, 2026, the German Steel Federation announced that the Procurement Acceleration Act, to be voted on in the Bundestag, must be cleared of ambiguities and strengthened with binding criteria in order to support domestic production and the green transformation.
German Steel Federation (WV Stahl) General Manager Kerstin Maria Rippel stated in her assessment of the Public Procurement Acceleration Act draft, which was voted on in the Federal Parliament on April 23, 2026, that the law represents an important step toward ensuring sustainability in public procurement.
However, Rippel criticized the current draft for being highly ambiguous and for leaving key regulations to a separate ordinance postponed until June 2027. She reminded that steel companies have already invested billions of euros in climate-neutral production processes and emphasized that, for these investments to pay off, planning security is needed “now,” not next year.
While the new regulation aims to make public procurement a key lever for the climate-friendly transformation of domestic industry, the lack of binding sustainability criteria and a “Made-in-EU” approach in the draft stands out. Rippel stressed that public tenders should not focus solely on the lowest price, but should instead support innovation and industrial value creation in Europe. She also warned that a system without a Made-in-EU criterion risks using German taxpayers’ money to finance decarbonization in other parts of the world rather than supporting domestic industry.
Germany, which maintained its position as Europe’s largest steel hub with a production of 34.1 million tons in 2025, is urged by the federation to bring forward the relevant regulation to sustain this strength. The statement underlined the need to quickly implement binding criteria that would increase the use of low-emission basic materials such as climate-friendly steel and cement.
Lastly, Rippel called for the decisive use of existing national policy tools and for the rapid elimination of legal uncertainties.
