On Friday 7 February, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced her intention to launch a strategic dialogue with the steel sector in the near future, along the lines of the one currently underway on the future of the automotive sector.
At the end of the College of European Commissioners’ visit to Gdańsk, as part of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council, Ms von der Leyen said that the Commission was in close contact with industry and was asking what it needs to decarbonise its activities, for example with the automotive sector, and “I will do the same with the steel sector”, which is under strong pressure from “energy costs” and “Chinese overcapacity flooding the EU market”.
In late 2024, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a major conference to help the steel sector (see EUROPE 13549/7).
In response to repeated Polish calls for measures to lower energy costs, Ms von der Leyen pointed out that, in February, the Commission would be presenting a ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ to support energy-intensive sectors in particular.
Before being able to benefit fully from investment in renewable energies, which will reduce dependence on them and create jobs in the EU, “we need baseload generation from gas-fired electricity in the medium term”, admitted the President of the Commission.
The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, said that he had spoken to Ms von der Leyen about “better treatment of gas-fired power plants”. “We need such power plants while we make huge investments into renewables”, he added, referring to a project in the Baltic Sea.
Competitiveness. The two leaders jointly stressed the importance of revising European regulations to simplify and accelerate the business environment.
“We will have a fleet of ‘omnibus’ proposals” to simplify the rules so as to “cut red tape”, promised Ms von der Leyen (see EUROPE 13573/18), as well as a new strategy for the Internal market.
Migration. The Polish Prime Minister also spoke of his country’s efforts to protect its border with Belarus, against the backdrop of the Lukashenko regime using migration as a weapon (see EUROPE 13561/5).
Also pointing out that Poland is hosting two million Ukrainian refugees, he said that his government would not accept any additional burden for the relocation of migrants that would be organised through the Pact on Migration and Asylum. He explained that Poland “is in a unique situation”, saying he was ready to support any Member State committed to protecting the EU’s external borders.
Ms von der Leyen believes that the instrumentalisation of migration by third countries constitutes a security threat for the whole of the European Union. Hence the Commission’s desire to support Finland, the Baltic States and Poland, which are facing such a threat, with additional financial resources.
“It is for Europeans to decide who enters the EU and under what circumstances”, she has stressed several times.
See Mr Tusk’s statement: https://aeur.eu/f/fej (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)