Delft: The draft Quantum Act that the European Commission is scheduled to propose on 18 November could exclude quantum technology suppliers controlled from outside the European Union from public contracts, according to a leaked text reported on 28 October. The wording can still change before adoption, but it signals how far Brussels may go to protect an emerging strategic industry.
Under the leaked version, public procurement of quantum technologies would be reserved for suppliers controlled within the EU and for companies authorised under reciprocal international agreements. That second category matters for partners such as the United Kingdom, Japan or Canada, because it implies that access to European tenders would depend on equivalent access for European firms abroad.
The draft Quantum Act also contains a security requirement. Public purchases in critical sectors would have to be ready for encryption designed to withstand attacks from future quantum computers. Governments, hospitals, energy operators and financial infrastructure would therefore need to plan upgrades of the cryptography that protects their systems, long before large quantum machines exist. Security experts say the draft Quantum Act reflects a wider shift, because encryption that works today could be broken once quantum computers mature.
The proposal has been in preparation for a year. The Commission opened a call for evidence in November 2025 to shape legislation on quantum technologies, and a quantum strategy had already set the scene for a law in 2026. The Act is one of several digital files on the Commission’s November agenda, alongside the Digital Fairness Act, which shows how crowded the legislative calendar has become. Officials describe the file as part of a broader effort to build European capacity in computing, sensing and communication technologies.
Industry reaction will turn on the details. European start-ups and research groups argue that scale-up capital and public demand are the missing ingredients, and a procurement preference could create a guaranteed first customer. Foreign suppliers and some member states worry that a closed market could slow access to the best components and raise costs for public buyers. Any procurement preference in the draft Quantum Act would therefore reshape which firms win public tenders across the Union.
The final text will also face the usual test in Parliament and Council, where capitals will weigh industrial ambition against openness and the cost of technology. Until 18 November, the leaked draft Quantum Act offers the clearest picture yet of a European attempt to combine industrial policy, economic security and cybersecurity in one instrument, and its procurement rules will decide who benefits.
