As every year, the publication of the EUROFER Annual Report is an opportunity to recap the policy work conducted by the association throughout 2023, as well as to inspect the forthcoming priority work areas EUROFER will be facing in the next months.They will be crucial to ensure that the future of green steel is and will be made in Europe, which is the essential condition for the EU to achieve global leadership in clean tech and secure its strategic autonomy.
The future of EU industry is at an existential crossroads. Either we are heading towards a resilient Europe with resilient manufacturing, clean tech value chains – from critical raw materials and steel to renewables and electric vehicles, or we are running towards dependence on third country imports.
In the steel sector, we are witnessing both compelling opportunities and unprecedented challenges during the transition to green, circular and clean steel manufacturing. Our members are frontrunners and have already launched numerous groundbreaking emissions reduction projects, unmatched anywhere else in the world, where also steel scrap recycling plays a crucial role.
The EU steel industry’s leadership in decarbonisation was also acknowledged by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her 2023 State of the Union address. She emphasised the imperative that “From wind to steel, from batteries to electric vehicles, our ambition is crystal clear: the future of our clean tech industry has to be made in Europe”.
Its critical role for EU economy and society, including for its green transition, should be more widely recognised at European level. This is also the objective of a pioneering awareness campaign we launched in Brussels this year.
The trajectory of the past year and the months ahead, with a new EU tenure about to start, will lead to a make-or-break it moment for the European industry as a whole, and notably for the steel sector. A fresh EU approach to industrial policy for 2024-2029 is no longer a choice but a necessity if the European Union intends to ‘make it’ and become the global leader in decarbonisation, whilst averting de-industrialisation.
On behalf of the European steel industry, EUROFER has presented its Manifesto 2024-2029, Stronger with European Steel. It highlights the enabling conditions for a successful transition of our industry, which are as follows:
The time for action is now. Europe can only be stronger with EU-made steel.
The full report is available below.
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Brussels, 28 July 2025 — The European steel value chain is at a critical juncture. Deindustrialization is accelerating across both steel production, distribution and processing, threatening the resilience, competitiveness, and long-term sustainability of a sector essential to Europe's strategic autonomy and industrial base.
Brussels, 29 July 2025 – The proposal for a ‘highly effective’ new trade measure to counter global overcapacity and preserve the European steel industry’s capacities, published yesterday by France on behalf of a group of 11 Member States, is a timely initiative. The non-paper sets a clear course towards a comprehensive steel trade measure to replace the current safeguard regime at a critical moment, as the negative impacts of global overcapacity on the European steel industry continue to grow, says the European Steel Association (EUROFER).
Brussels, 28 July 2025 – The deal on tariffs struck by the EU with the U.S. limits the damage in the current circumstances, but the impact on European steel remains dramatic as long as 50% tariffs are still applied. A potential joint action EU-U.S. to address global overcapacity and a possible return to a tariff-rate quota system for EU exports to the U.S., as hinted at by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, are still vague and lack the necessary details to the bring the economic certainty needed by EU steel producers, says the European Steel Association.
The European Steel Association (EUROFER)
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