EU Steel and Metals Action Plan

Key points

The EESC:

• expresses deep concern over the EU steel industry's crisis and urges urgent measures to restore competitiveness, protect jobs, and promote investments in sector transition;
• advocates for a new comprehensive trade measure to replace the steel safeguard before its expiry on 1 July 2026, covering all countries and affected steel products, using tariff-rate quotas linked to market share and capacity utilization;
• urges the immediate implementation of a 'melted and poured' rule to prevent circumvention and improve steel traceability, along with suspension of the ‘lesser duty’ rule where necessary;
• requests the release of the legislative draft on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), ensuring free allowances for exports to non-EU countries lacking comparable climate policies and expanding CBAM coverage to downstream steel-intensive sectors;
• supports swift adoption of the Omnibus I proposal to shield SMEs from excessive administrative and cost burdens under CBAM without undermining environmental or social goals;
• calls on the European Commission to recognize the strategic importance of metal scrap as a secondary raw material, proposing monitoring systems for scrap exports, including export duties, tariff quotas, and stricter enforcement against illegal exports, as well as integrating scrap recycling into waste legislation;
• recommends a structural reform of the electricity market, including impact assessments of alternative market designs, to pass the benefits of clean electricity costs to consumers and industry.
• calls for specific guidance within the Clean Industrial State Aid Framework to support temporary energy price relief schemes for energy-intensive industries impacted by international trade;
• emphasizes prioritizing hydrogen access for industry by allocating sectoral budgets within future Hydrogen Bank auctions, revising the Delegated Act on Renewable Hydrogen for domestic production, and adopting a low-carbon hydrogen delegated act;
• calls for criteria that enhance the resilience and sustainability of EU-made clean products as part of the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act;
• recommends assessing the steel and metals industries’ investment needs and increasing dedicated financial support, with social conditionalities, potentially using CBAM and EU ETS revenues to finance industrial decarbonization projects, including via the upcoming Industrial Decarbonisation Bank;
• proposes establishing a Just Transition Fund targeted at energy-intensive industries, focusing on upskilling, reskilling, and mobility support for workers.