EU Commission publishes Steel and Metals Action Plan

The EU plan looks to safeguard the steel and metals industry within the 22 Member States.

The European steel industry represents around 500 production sites, contributes around €80bln to its GDP and supports more than 2.6 million jobs.

The plan has sector-specific priority measures, evolving from multiple discussions and stakeholder engagement. The action plan will:

• Ensure an affordable and secure energy supply for the sector through promoting Power Purchase Agreements, encouraging energy tax flexibility, reducing network tariffs to alleviate electricity price volatility, give faster grid access, and supporting renewables and low-carbon hydrogen.
• Prevent carbon leakage through the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and ensure non-EU industries do not ‘greenwash’ their metals.
• Expand and protect European industrial capacities by proposing new long-term measures to protect the steel sector. The Commission will assess the introduction of the ‘melted and poured rule’ to determine the origin of metal goods.
• Promote circularity by setting targets for recycled steel and aluminium in key sectors, and they will consider trade measures on metal scrap.
• De-risking decarbonisation through the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act. The Clean Industrial Deal will be allocated €150mln through the Research Fund for Coal and Steel in 2026-27 and €100bln through the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank.
• Protect quality industrial jobs by employing active labour policies. The European Fair Transition Observatory and the Quality Jobs Roadmap will also be added to the Clean Industrial Deal.

Responding to the Plan, Community’s Assistant General Secretary Alasdair McDiarmid says, ‘Given that the EU has now confirmed they will strengthen their steel safeguards from the 1 April, in response to President Trumps’s devastating 25% global steel tariffs, it is absolutely critical that the UK Government moves swiftly to keep pace.

‘We know that as a result of the US steel tariffs there will be millions of tonnes of steel, that had been destined for the US, now floating around the world looking for a new home.

‘The government must ensure that our own market is protected, because the consequences of not doing so would threaten thousands of jobs. To avoid the UK becoming an import-magnet, it is imperative that the government acts urgently to at least match any measures taken by the EU.

‘In addition to enhanced steel safeguards we urgently need a strong UK CBAM to protect our steel sector from cheap and dirty steel imports. The government’s plan to introduce a CBAM in 2027, a year after the EU introduces their own CBAM, must now be reconsidered.’