Commission Launches Action Plan for a Resilient, Competitive and Decarbonised Steel and Metals European Industry

The European Commission has introduced an Action Plan on Steel and Metals to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of Europe’s steel and metals industries, which play a vital role in sectors such as automotive, clean technology, and defence. The initiative addresses key challenges, including high energy costs, unfair global competition, and the need for significant investments in emission reduction.

The Action plan is based on measures from the Clean Industrial Deal and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy and is designed to address the aforementioned challenges in the following ways:

Affordable and Secure Energy: reducing energy costs by promoting Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), energy tax flexibility, and renewable energy use.
Prevent Carbon Leakage: extension of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to specific steel and aluminium products and implementation of anti-circumvention measures to prevent unfair advantages for non-EU industries.
Expand and Protect Industrial Capacities: strengthening of trade defence measures, introduction of long-term safeguards for steel, and considering a “melted and poured rule” to verify metal goods’ origin.
Promote Circularity: including recycling targets for steel and aluminum and possible trade measures for metal scrap to support decarbonised steel production.
De-risking Decarbonisation: introduction of the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act, support of low-carbon metal demand, and invest in €100 billion through the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank to fund industrial decarbonization.
Protect Quality Jobs: labor policies supporting skills development and fair job transitions for nearly 2.6 million people employed in the sector.

For more information, see the Commission’s PR.

For additional background information see our PRs on the EU Competitiveness Compass and the Draft State aid Framework supporting the Clean Industrial Deal.