EU Unveils Ambitious Steel Action Plan as UK Urged to Match Bold Measures

The European Commission has launched a sweeping Action Plan for Steel and Metals, outlining decisive measures to protect and strengthen Europe’s steel industry amid mounting global pressures. Rising energy costs, global overcapacity, and the impact of new U.S. tariffs have created an urgent need for intervention—and the EU’s rapid, wide-ranging response reflects the scale of the challenge.

Key priorities in the plan include energy security, trade defence, decarbonisation, and job protection—with the Commission positioning steel as a critical pillar of Europe’s green industrial transformation.

Among the headline measures:

• Affordable energy for industry: New incentives for Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), reduced network tariffs, and accelerated grid access for energy-intensive industries, along with support for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen use.
• Carbon leakage prevention: Reinforced through the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to stop high-emission producers from bypassing environmental standards.
• Enhanced trade defences: A new long-term steel safeguard regime is planned before the current one expires in 2026, along with consideration of the “melted and poured” origin rule to ensure transparency in metal production.
• Boosting circularity: Potential targets for recycled steel and stricter trade measures on scrap metal are being explored.
• Decarbonisation funding: €150 million from the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, €600 million via Horizon Europe, and a massive €100 billion mobilisation from the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, including a €1 billion pilot auction in 2025.
• Job protection: Employment impacts will be closely monitored by the European Fair Transition Observatory, with support from the Quality Jobs Roadmap.

UK Urged to Respond with Equal Urgency

The plan has drawn a sharp response from UK Steel, with Director General Gareth Stace calling on the UK Government to urgently match the EU’s ambition.

“The speed and ambition of Ursula von der Leyen’s Steel Action Plan shows what’s possible when governments act decisively,” said Stace. “The same challenges—rising energy costs, import pressures, the need for decarbonisation—face UK steel. Now is the time for action.”

While a long-term UK Steel Strategy is still in development, Stace stressed that immediate steps are required—such as tightening UK safeguard quotas in line with the EU’s timeline, delivering competitive industrial energy prices, and prioritising British steel in public projects.

“We’ve presented clear solutions to government. Now we need delivery. The EU has drawn a line in the sand—will the UK follow?”