Brussels, 09/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - Meeting for an extraordinary Competitiveness Council on Monday 9 November, the industry ministers agreed to hold a high-level conference by the end of the year - to include the social partners, industry and the member states - to take stock of the crisis which is hitting the steel sector hard and to define political actions to be taken, in connection with the high-level group on energy-intensive industries.
This concerns a request made by the British at Coreper on Friday 6 November, with the support of Italy, amongst others. The British, whose steel sector is in great difficulties, were also behind this Council, which was requested by the secretary of state for business, Sajid Javid (see EUROPE 11425). At this conference, the date for which has yet to be set, stock will be taken of the implementation of the 2013 action plan for the steel industry.
In conclusions they adopted, the states also agreed on a raft of general measures to be taken in the near future. The most emblematic of these, as it was called for by the steel sector, is the modernisation of the Trade Defence Instrument (TDI), which aims to protect certain branches of the economy from the dumping practices of third countries. The TDI procedure takes an average of nine months before ruling on a case of unfair competition. This, say representatives of the steel industry, is far too long. Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for investment, warned against unrealistic expectations. “There are always improvements which might be made to the procedure”, but we must not undermine the quality of the impact study, he said. The commissioner went on to say that although it works more quickly, the American trade defence model cannot be taken as an example, due to the specific nature of the European market, particularly from a linguistic point of view.
Among the other measures referred to, the member states are proposing to: - take account of the specific situation of the steel industry, which is energy-intensive by its very nature, from the point of view of the costs of energy in Europe; - step up discussions with the industry in the framework of the steel committee of the OECD and the Commission's bilateral dialogue with China, Russia, Belarus, Turkey and India; - improve the access of the European industry to third-country markets by means of bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations; - modernise the sector, using the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financial arm of the Juncker investment plan; - fight carbon leaks through a weighted re-examination of the emissions quota trading system (ETS system); - make the best possible use of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and the European Social Fund, to help workers hit by closures in the steel industry back into work.
Katainen went on to say that the UN conference on the climate (COP 21), which will be held in Paris at the end of the month, will have a significant impact on the steel sector at global level and, in particular, on the Chinese steel sector. Beijing recently pledged to take binding measures, verifiable over time, in the framework of the fight against climate change.
Following the meeting, the ministers had dinner with representatives of the sector, including the presidents of Eurofer, Tata Steel Europe, ThyssenKnupp Steel Europe, Celsa Group and Arvedi Tubi Acciaio. The sector's request to set in place a monitoring system for steel products, to determine their quality and price so as to step up the fight against dumping practices, does not seem to have been acted upon.
Debate reflected at the European Parliament. “The question we have to answer is a very simple one: do we want a strong industrial sector in Europe, or not?”, asked MEP and former steel industry unionist, Édouard Martin (S&D, France), speaking to EUROPE earlier in the day. He feels that the wait-and-see attitude of the member states can be explained by their fear at the possible reaction of the Chinese giant, which is a major customer for European exports. He warned against a vision putting short-term profit first, which would lead to the destruction of the steel sector and make Europe completely dependent on third countries for its metals. “China is crushing prices through social, fiscal and environmental dumping. Then, once the competition has been destroyed, the country will enjoy a monopoly situation”, the Martin predicted, adding that China already represents more than half of global production.
For their part, the British Conservatives called on Monday 9 November for the European Commission and the Council of the EU to present a progress report of their work at the mini plenary session of Wednesday 11 November. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)