The European Commission (EC) has held a roundtable meeting today, February 12, attended by representatives from 13 steel producing member states and the European Parliament, regarding the EC's plan to deliver an action plan by June to safeguard the EU steel industry. The attendees include French minister of productive recovery Arnaud Montebourg, the Belgian Walloon region's economy minister Jean-Claude Marcourt, Luxembourg's economy minister Etienne Schneider, and Austrian economy, family and youth minister Reinhold Mitterlehner, as well as top ranking government representatives and civil servants from the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. EUROFER president Wolfgang Eder, Bart Samyn, deputy general secretary of the union industriAll, and Pervinche Beres, chair of the European Parliament's committee on employment and social affairs, also participated.
The proposals to be considered by the Commission, EU member states and the industry over the few next years include measures on trade, raw materials, legislation costs, climate change, energy, environment, employment, and research and development.
Regarding raw materials, the EC has suggested including blast furnace coke in the list of critical raw materials, a list of 14 economically important raw materials which are subject to a higher risk of supply interruption.
The Commission recommends giving full support for research and development, demonstration and deployment of new technologies using all available instruments, and encouraging companies to invest in the best available technologies.
Under the scope of the action plan, the EC also recommends the creation of additional funding schemes for development of new technologies including earmarking of emissions trading system revenues. The proposed recommendations also include ones relating to employment, such as forming an inter-service task force to investigate and follow up each case of plant closure or significant downsizing.
With a workforce of 360,000 people, a turnover of around €170 billion and its position in the manufacturing value chain of many downstream sectors, the steel sector holds a strategic place in Europe's economy.
