Major EU members offered qualified support for the bloc’s flagship industrial plans on Thursday in the first debate over a proposal that has deepened tensions with China.Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland all accepted the broad parameters of the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), which would put strict conditions on investments into the union from China and other countries, even as they quibbled over red tape, timescales and how open the plan should be to non-EU members.Proposed in March, the act is the crystallisation of what some call a “reverse Deng”, after former Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, whose efforts to draw foreign manufacturing are often credited with kick-starting China’s economic miracle.Decades later, the EU wants to force companies looking to invest in Europe, while they tap public subsidies, procurement markets and fast-track permitting, to meet stringent terms, many of which mirror those Beijing used for decades.In sectors like electric vehicles and batteries, firms would be required to establish joint ventures with local partners; transfer technology and know-how to such partners; conduct research and development in Europe; and abide by strict local supply-chain laws.Volkswagen electric vehicles at the German company’s factory in Wolfsburg. Under the Industrial Accelerator Act, non-EU firms would be required to establish joint ventures with local partners in sectors like EV. Photo: dpaAt the bloc’s competitiveness council on Thursday, supportive member states warned that the emergency facing EU industry meant there was no time for dawdling.