Brussels, 19 March 2025
Today, the EU Commission takes action to maintain and expand European industrial capacities in the steel and metals sectors. The Action Plan on Steel and Metals is designed to strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and safeguard the industry’s future.
The European steel industry is fundamental for European economy, providing inputs to critical sectors such as automotive, clean tech, and defence. A strong steel and metals industry in Europe is crucial to guarantee the EU’s security in the current geopolitical context and to deliver on the ”ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030” also presented today.
At the same time, this sector is at a critical turning point, challenged by high energy costs, unfair global competition, and the need for investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Plan is delivered in a time when market distorting measures, such as non-market support to global overcapacities and unjustified tariffs on EU steel and aluminium, can negatively impact our economy.
Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “The steel industry has always been a core engine for European prosperity. Next-generation, clean steel should therefore continue to be manufactured in Europe. That means we have to help our steelmakers who are facing strong headwinds on the global market. To make sure they remain competitive, we must reduce energy costs and help them introduce innovative, low-carbon technologies to the market. With today’s Action Plan we are offering concrete solutions for a thriving European steel industry.”
With this Action Plan, the Commission supports these sectors in facing the current challenges in the short to medium term. The sector-specific priority measures are the result of an inclusive and collaborative process, which involved multiple discussions and stakeholder engagement, including the Steel Dialogue that took place on 4 March 2025. The Action Plan will:
- Ensure an affordable and secure energy supply for the sector: Energy costs represent a larger share of production costs for metals than for other sectors. The Action Plan promotes the use of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and encourages Member States to leverage energy tax flexibility and reduced network tariffs to alleviate electricity price volatility. The Plan promotes faster grid access for energy-intensive industries and supports the increased use of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen within the sectors.
- Prevent carbon leakage: The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) must ensure a level playing field. It should also ensure that non-EU industries do not “greenwash” their metals to appear low-carbon while still relying on high-emission energy sources. In the second quarter of this year, the Commission will issue a communication on how to address the problem of carbon leakage for CBAM goods exported from the EU to third countries. In addition, the Commission will conduct a review of CBAM, with a first legislative proposal by the end of 2025 extending the scope of CBAM to certain steel and aluminium-based downstream products and including additional anti-circumvention measures.
- Expand and protect European industrial capacities: Global overcapacity is a serious threat to the profitability and competitiveness of this sector. The EU has already acted with trade defence measures against unfair competition in steel, aluminium, and ferroalloys, but the situation continues to worsen. This is why the Commission is tightening the current steel safeguards. Before the end of the year, the Commission will propose a new long-term measure to maintain highly effective protection of the EU’s steel sector once the current safeguard expires in mid-2026. To prevent exporters from bypassing trade defence measures, the Commission will also assess the introduction of the “melted and poured rule” to determine the origin of metal goods.
- Promote Circularity: Improving recycling is crucial for cutting emissions and energy use in the metals industry. The Commission plans to set targets for recycled steel and aluminium in key sectors and assess whether more products, like construction materials and electronics, should have recycling or recycled content requirements. Additionally, the Commission will consider trade measures on metal scrap, a vital input for decarbonised steel, to ensure sufficient availability of scrap.
- De-risking decarbonisation: The future Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act will introduce resilience and sustainability criteria for European products in public procurement to boost demand for EU-produced low-carbon metals, creating lead markets. The Commission will allocate €150 million through the Research Fund for Coal and Steel in 2026-27, with an additional €600 million via Horizon Europe devoted to the Clean Industrial Deal. At the scale-up stage, the Commission targets €100 billion through the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, drawing on the Innovation Fund and other sources, with a €1 billion pilot auction in 2025 focusing on decarbonising and electrifying key industrial processes.
- Protect quality industrial jobs: The steel and metals industry are vital to the EU economy, employing directly and indirectly nearly 2.6 million people. Active labour policies will support skills development and fair job transitions. The European Fair Transition Observatory and the Quality Jobs Roadmap, part of the Clean Industrial Deal, will oversee employment impacts, ensuring workers’ rights are protected.
Background
The Action Plan for Steel and Metals builds on measures from the Clean Industrial Deal and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy. The Action Plan follows the strategic dialogue chaired by the President of the Commission and the Executive Vice-President in charge of the Prosperity and Industrial Strategy. It is the second sectorial plan of this Commission after the automotive industry action plan presented the 5th of March 2025. The plan also drew on insights from the Transition Pathway for the metals sectors, published together with this action plan, providing additional background and bottom-up analysis of the needs and challenges of the metals industries and the views expressed by the different stakeholders.
The European steel industry, with approximately 500 production sites across 22 Member States, contributes around €80 billion to the EU’s GDP and supports over 2.6 million jobs.
More information
- Action Plan on Steel and Metals
- Questions & Answers
- Factsheet
- Speech by Executive Vice-President Séjourné
- President von der Leyen launches Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the Steel sector
- EC AV PORTAL – Steel and metals
Quote(s):
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission:
The steel industry has always been a core engine for European prosperity. Next-generation, clean steel should therefore continue to be manufactured in Europe. That means we have to help our steelmakers who are facing strong headwinds on the global market. To make sure they remain competitive, we must reduce energy costs and help them introduce innovative, low-carbon technologies to the market. With today’s Action Plan we are offering concrete solutions for a thriving European steel industry.
Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy:
The European Steel and Metals Action Plan will protect our industry from unfair commercial practices, consolidate our decarbonisation strategy and boost domestic demand for low-carbon industrial products. We owe this to all European economic sectors that rely on a strong EU steel and metals industry, to all the workers in our steel plants and to our next generations that will inherit a European Union with an independent and prosperous industry. There can be no reindustrialisation, and no European path to climate neutrality without a resilient steel and metals industrial base within the borders of the EU.
Source – EU Commission
Questions and answers on the Action Plan on Steel and Metals
Brussels, 19 March 2025
Why is the Commission presenting an Action Plan for the European Steel and Metals industry?
Steel and metals are the backbone of Europe’s industrial economy, essential for the energy, transport, construction, and defence sectors. To remain globally competitive, the European steel and metals industry must address challenges arising from high energy costs and intensifying international competition. As one of the EU’s largest industrial emitters, the sector must accelerate its decarbonisation efforts while maintaining competitiveness. The European Steel and Metals Action Plan builds on the Clean Industrial Deal, outlining concrete actions to make decarbonisation a driver of growth for European industry and provides measures to deal with global overcapacities and market distorting measures such as unjustified US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.
How does this plan help European steel and metal companies stay competitive?
The European Steel and Metals Action Plan is designed to strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and safeguard the industry’s future.
The plan focuses on six pillars: 1) ensuring access to clean and affordable energy, 2) preventing carbon leakage, 3) strengthening European industrial capacities, 4) promoting circularity for metals, 5) defending quality industrial jobs, 6) de-risking projects through lead markets and public support.
What measures are foreseen to support access to cleaner and more affordable energy?
The Commission calls on Member States to make use of all the flexibilities provided by the European energy legislation and State aid rules to lower costs for energy-intensive industries, for example through the design of network tariffs and by lowering electricity taxation down to zero.
For its part, the Commission will provide Guidance on the design of network tariffs and of public support schemes for clean energy, making sure that such support schemes can be combined with long-term Power Purchase Agreements.
The Commission will propose additional measures to facilitate and accelerate access to grid infrastructure for electrification projects in energy intensive industries.
What funding and incentives are available for businesses investing in decarbonisation?
The EU and Member States have already been actively supporting investments in decarbonisation through a combination of public and private funding, financial incentives, and regulatory reforms. From October 2022 to February 2025, the Commission approved close to €9 billion of State aid for steel decarbonisation projects and support schemes; in addition, several steel and metals decarbonisation projects also received support through the EU Innovation Fund and the LIFE programme.
In the future, the EU will expand its support for innovation and commercialisation in these sectors. The Commission will launch flagship initiatives under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) which would mobilise €150 million in 2026 and 2027 and could also contribute to strengthening the European defence research dimension of the sector. In addition, the Commission will propose an overall reform of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, to simplify and further accelerate investments in steel research, including for defence related research.
Finally, the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank announced in the Clean Industrial Deal aims to mobilise €100 billion in funding at scale up stage, leveraging funds from the Innovation Fund, additional revenues resulting from parts of the ETS as well as the revision of InvestEU. In 2025, the Commission will launch a pilot with a € 1 billion auction to support the decarbonisation and electrification in key industrial processes across various sectors.
What measures are foreseen to address the global steel overcapacity? Why is the Commission presenting an Action Plan for the European Steel and Metals industry?
Steel and metals are the backbone of Europe’s industrial economy, essential for the energy, transport, construction, and defence sectors. To remain globally competitive, the European steel and metals industry must address challenges arising from high energy costs and intensifying international competition. As one of the EU’s largest industrial emitters, the sector must accelerate its decarbonisation efforts while maintaining competitiveness. The European Steel and Metals Action Plan builds on the Clean Industrial Deal, outlining concrete actions to make decarbonisation a driver of growth for European industry and envisages measures to deal with global overcapacities and market distorting measures such as unjustified US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.
How does this plan help European steel and metal companies stay competitive?
The European Steel and Metals Action Plan is designed to strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and safeguard the industry’s future.
The plan focuses on six pillars:
- ensuring access to clean and affordable energy,
- preventing carbon leakage,
- strengthening European industrial capacities,
- promoting circularity for metals,
- defending quality industrial jobs,
- de-risking projects through lead markets and public support.
What measures are foreseen to support access to cleaner and more affordable energy?
The Commission calls on Member States to make use of all the flexibilities provided by the European energy legislation and State aid rules to lower costs for energy-intensive industries, for example through the design of network tariffs and by lowering electricity taxation down to zero.
For its part, the Commission will provide Guidance on the design of network tariffs and of public support schemes for clean energy, making sure that such support schemes can be combined with long-term Power Purchase Agreements.
The Commission will propose additional measures to facilitate and accelerate access to grid infrastructure for electrification projects in energy intensive industries.
What funding and incentives are available for businesses investing in decarbonisation?
The EU and Member States have already been actively supporting investments in decarbonisation through a combination of public and private funding, financial incentives, and regulatory reforms. From October 2022 to February 2025, the Commission approved close to €9 billion of State aid for steel decarbonisation projects and support schemes; in addition, several steel and metals decarbonisation projects also received support through the EU Innovation Fund and the LIFE programme.
In the future, the EU will expand its support for innovation and commercialisation in these sectors. The Commission will launch flagship initiatives under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) which would mobilise €150 million in 2026 and 2027 and could also contribute to strengthening the European defence research dimension of the sector. In addition, the Commission will propose an overall reform of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, to simplify and further accelerate investments in steel research, including for defence-related research.
Finally, the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank announced in the Clean Industrial Deal aims to mobilise €100 billion in funding at scale-up stage, leveraging funds from the Innovation Fund, additional revenues resulting from parts of the ETS as well as the revision of InvestEU. In 2025, the Commission will launch a pilot with a € 1 billion auction to support the decarbonisation and electrification in key industrial processes across various sectors.
What measures are foreseen to address the global steel overcapacity?
To protect European industry from global overcapacity and unfair competition, the Commission has proposed to adjust the current steel safeguard as of 1 April 2025. The safeguard shields the industry by imposing tariffs for the quantities above historical trade levels. Due to the upcoming expiry of the steel safeguard measure in June 2026, by the third quarter of 2025, the Commission will make a legislative proposal for a trade measure replacing the steel safeguard and providing a highly effective level of protection against negative trade-related effects caused by global overcapacities to the EU’s steel sector.
What measures are proposed to address unfair trading practices in other metals sectors?
The Commission stands ready to make use of the trade defence instruments and to launch an investigation for safeguards in the aluminium sector immediately after the duly substantiated request is made. The Commission will also conduct the ongoing ferroalloys safeguards investigation expeditiously and will assess the introduction of the rule of “melted and poured” to prevent circumvention of its trade defence measures.
What measures is the Commission proposing to prevent carbon leakage?
Carbon leakage refers to the situation where companies move their production to countries with less strict environmental regulations, typically in terms of carbon emissions. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is the EU’s tool to put a fair price on the carbon emitted during the production of carbon intensive goods that are entering the EU, and to encourage cleaner industrial production in non-EU countries. Because of the urgency of the situation, the Commission will frontload some key aspects of its CBAM review. It will notably issue in the second quarter of 2025 a Communication setting out its analysis and options on how to avoid carbon leakage at export. The Commission will also – as part of its general CBAM review – table a first legislative proposal amending the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) Regulation by the end of the year to extend the scope of CBAM to certain steel and aluminium-intensive downstream products, to prevent the risk of carbon leakage being pushed further down the value chain. The Commission will also propose other CBAM anti-circumvention measures.
What is the Commission proposing to support workers?
The best support to workers is to ensure that steel and metals plants can still operate within the EU. By giving clarity, protection and predictability to EU steel and metals makers, the European Commission is acting to safeguard quality industrial jobs all over the continent. In complement to this unprecedented effort for the sector, the Commission is committed to working jointly with social partners to ensure a just and fair transition of the sectors.
What role does the Critical Raw Materials Act play in helping the steel and metals sectors?
Aluminium, copper and nickel, as well as many steel alloying elements, are critical raw materials and therefore benefit from the provisions of the Critical Raw Materials Act, which seeks to unlock the EU’s raw materials potential along the entire value chain.
The Critical Raw Materials Act, which came into force in May 2024, will provide targeted funding and regulatory streamlining for key projects involving aluminium, copper, and nickel. The EU will streamline permitting for strategic raw material projects, simplify access to public funding, and launch a platform to stabilise raw material markets and reduce price volatility.
The Commission will announce the first round of selected Strategic Projects in March 2025 in the EU Member States and partner third countries, which will allow them to benefit from streamlined permitting procedures and facilitated access to funding.
Furthermore, the Commission is working to increase the stability of raw materials markets, to prevent excessive price fluctuations that could put European projects at risk. The demand/supply matchmaking aggregation platform for critical raw materials, to be launched this year, could also benefit the base metals sectors, increasing business opportunities and providing additional long-term certainty for transactions.
What is the Transition Pathway for European Metals Sectors and how is it linked to the Steel and Metals Action Plan?
In its updated 2021 industrial strategy, the Commission proposed a series of transition pathways to be developed jointly with EU Member States, industry and other stakeholders. These pathways identify the actions needed to achieve the twin green and digital transition, while giving a better understanding of the challenges, scale, benefits and conditions required.
In the summer of 2023, the Commission launched the ‘co-creation’ process for the transition pathway for the European metals industry. The process involved EU Member States, the ferrous and non-ferrous metals industries, social partners, NGOs and academia. This report identifies a series of actions proposed by different stakeholders to ensure a successful twin transition for the metals sectors and provide additional background and bottom-up analysis as a timely input into the Steel and Metals Action Plan.
For More Information
Source – EU Commission
Remarks by Executive Vice-President Séjourné at the press conference on the Action Plan on Steel and Metals
Brussels, 19 March 2025
Hello everyone,
As you know, our steel and metals industry is facing a serious crisis, between an explosion in electricity prices and global overcapacity arriving on our market. Trade tensions have not helped matters.
We Europeans had two possible choices:
Either accept that Europe is no longer competitive in steel, and gradually lose our production capacity and become dependent.
Or preserve an industry we need for construction, automobiles and defense.
The choice was clear. Europe must save its steel.
We owe it to our history. Europe began with steel.
We owe it to steel and metal workers.
We owe it to our entire economy.
This plan was drawn up with producers, unions and NGOs.
This plan meets all our competitiveness criteria
The cost of energy
Competition
The offer
The request
Today, we are giving a strong signal to investors and workers alike. We are providing predictability and a competitive framework for European production.
I’m going to start with what’s most eagerly awaited: our tools for protecting European steel. In the space of a few years, global overcapacity – particularly from Asia – has hit our mills’ order books hard. With energy prices falling, this is priority number one: we need to protect our steel mills from unfair foreign competition – wherever it may come from.
Europe must be a global steel player, not a playground.
As you know, we have a safeguard clause that already protects our market – but it’s not enough.
Immediate action: on April 1,we will reinforce the current safeguard clause. We’re aiming for a drop of up to 15% in imports.
Medium-term actions: the replacement of the safeguard clause, which expires in 2026, will be presented in the third half of 2025. And it will be more effective than the current one
Long-term actions: we will launch investigations into aluminum on the European market, with a view to introducing a safeguard clause similar to that for steel.
Secondly, we will be reforming the Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism (BCAM) by the end of the year. This was a key request from the industry. We have accelerated the timetable and increased our ambition for reform.
By the end of the year, we will be presenting measures to reinforce CBAM’s action. These will operate in three directions: exports, anti-circumvention measures, and the extension of the products concerned
Our producers cannot be the most virtuous and the most penalized on the international market.
Finally, well also be looking at modifying the rules of origin to prevent foreign steel from undergoing a simple minor transformation in Europe, and then being sold as a European product.
The objective is clear: our competitors must no longer exploit the shortcomings of our regulatory framework.
Next, we need to act on supply and demand.
On the demand side – this is the business plan for steel made in Europe. To increase demand for European clean steel, we will introduce incentives, and a minimum of clean, European-made steel in our public procurement.
We are also studying the possibility of imposing the use of recycled steel in certain products. This should limit exports of our scrap steel. This is a major issue, because recycling our own steel costs less in energy and makes us more self-sufficient. Scrap must stay in Europe!
Finally, we are going to secure our supplies of essential raw materials, with dozens of critical raw materials projects that I will be presenting next Tuesday.
Finally, the steel industry of tomorrow will be
We have therefore made several concrete commitments:
Guarantee competitive electricity prices, in particular through long-term PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements).
Relax state aid rules to finance the ecological transition of steel mills.
Invest massively in hydrogen: a new delegated act will be presented to support low-carbon hydrogen, particularly in conjunction with nuclear power.
Develop research and innovation with 150 million euros in 2026 and 2027 dedicated to decarbonization technologies.
Above all, we are going to create a European Decarbonization Bank to raise the necessary funds and support this transition.
Ladies and Gentlemen, you’ve understood. Europe continues to change its mindset and will protect its strategic and vital interests. Steel and metals are among them.
It’s essential for our industry and jobs.
Source – EU Commission