2,000 Chinese Workers Are Building the Gigafactory EU Rules Are Meant to Protect

Brussels proposed its Industrial Accelerator Act on 4 March 2026, requiring at least 50% EU workers for strategic investments. In Figueruelas, Spain, 2,000 Chinese workers are already on-site building a €4.1bn ($4.8bn) CATL-Stellantis battery gigafactory — with more than €300m in EU funding behind it. The dependency Europe is debating in policy papers is already being poured into concrete in Aragon.

What happened in China This story doesn't start in Beijing. It starts in a town of around 1,300 people in northeastern Spain — and it illustrates, more clearly than any think-tank report, what Chinese industrial strategy looks like when it lands on European soil. CATL, the world's largest EV battery maker, broke ground on a battery plant in Figueruelas, Zaragoza, in November 2025. The plant is a joint venture with Stellantis — the automotive group that owns Opel, Peugeot, and 12 other car brands — and represents a $4.5 billion investment, or €4.1bn ($4.8bn) depending on the source. More than €300m of that is backed by European Union funding. To build it, CATL deployed 2,000 Chinese experts to Figueruelas. The town had a population of around 1,000 people at the time of reporting. That means the incoming Chinese workforce will triple the town's population for the duration of building…

2,000 Chinese Workers Are Building the Gigafactory EU Rules Are Meant to Protect

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