On Friday 12 December, the Council of the European Union adopted its negotiating position on the new safeguard measure to protect the European steel industry. The EU Member States have adopted the Commission’s main elements, namely the system of tariff quotas for all third countries - excluding the EEA - and the 50% tariff for imports outside the quotas. They did, however, make a few changes to the text, adding a degree of flexibility.
While EU economic sectors that use steel in their production - downstream sectors - are not entirely happy with the safeguard measure, the EU Council insists in the text on the need to take the interests of these players into account when allocating or modifying tariff quotas, or when bilateral safeguard measures are decided.
The European Commission should also take into account the potential substantial price increases observed on steel when it modifies the country quotas.
The Commission may, by means of a delegated act, adjust the volumes of tariff quotas. The EU Council specified that the total value of these adjusted quotas must be capped at between 15.2 and 22.2 million tonnes.
To give greater flexibility to third countries exporting steel to the EU - and in line with the request made by the rapporteur of the text to the European Parliament - the Member States are asking for the volumes of tariff quotas not used in a given quarter to be carried over to the following quarter.
Again in the interests of flexibility, the EU Council is proposing that third countries be given until October 2026 to prove the origin of their steel.
Widening the scope. The Member States would like the Commission to assess the possibility of extending the scope of the safeguard within 18 months rather than 24 months.
Similarly, the more general review of the regulation and its effects on the European economy should be carried out earlier: within four years of its entry into force, with subsequent evaluations every two years. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)