On Wednesday 1 October, the steel industry representative Eurofer and the European trade union IndustriAll organised an extraordinary summit to raise awareness of the situation facing the steel industry in the EU. In particular, they held talks with the European Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, who reassured them about the measure that will replace the current safeguard tool, which is set to expire in June 2026.
According to our information, the Commission is expected to change the instrument and opt for a regulation that allows for a permanent, rather than a temporary, measure. However, the operation would be similar to that of the current measure, i.e. based on a certain volume of steel per third country that can enter at the MFN tariff. Beyond this fixed volume, an additional tariff should be applied.
Steel manufacturers and trade unions are calling for this tariff to be raised to 50% to effectively reduce low-cost imports into the EU. A tariff of less than 50% “would not be able to stem the tide of imports” or effectively protect jobs, IndustriAll General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling told Agence Europe.
Tight schedule. The European Commission is due to publish its proposal on 7 October (see EUROPE 13720/33). “It is important that it is adopted before the end of this year”, urged Eurofer Director General Axel Eggert. An ambitious timetable, given that the Commission’s proposal is still unknown.
However, according to MEP Jens Geier (EPP, German), who sits on the Parliament’s Committee on Industry and attended the steel summit, this timetable could be met. “The European Parliament will not be an obstacle in the process”, he assured Agence Europe.
In addition to this safeguard measure, Eurofer and IndustriAll have made other requests to the co-legislators, such as revising the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to target more products prone to carbon leakage.
They are also calling on the Commission to take action to retain recycled scrap metal within the EU, which is currently largely exported and does not supply European producers.
They also discussed the idea of pilot markets for green steel made in Europe. This concept is also supported by several Member States (see EUROPE 13719/2, 13720/34). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)