The European steel industry is already hard at work developing new ways to produce carbon-lean steels, but the EU needs to implement a set of concrete measures, as soon as possible, to ensure that decarbonisation is achieved while actually ensuring growth and sustainability. Achieving the levels set by the EU will require an overhaul of the regulatory regime that governs how the steel industry operates, environmental rules and the EU's trade policy. 

To make the EU’s recovery plan and green transition a success, a Green Deal on Steel should be a coordinated approach for the EU policies on industry, climate, energy, trade and recovery.

This deal on steel should include the application of trade defence instruments without inhibition, the adoption of new tools to address damaging foreign subsidies, and the reform and modernisation of the WTO. To the make a success of the green transition, we need an effective carbon border measure reinforcing existing carbon leakage measures and green transition support, including boosts for innovation, development and deployment.

The green transition in steel, as part of the objectives of the Green Deal, will not succeed without fair competition in trade and balanced environmental costs. Steel has the greatest leverage effect on the path to a climate-neutral Europe and it is an important test for whether Europe will find its place in the new world order.

To find out more, please visit the Green Deal on Steel section of the EUROFER website.