PES member Isolde Ries, First Vice-President of Saarland Landtag (Germany), is rapporteur for the CoR opinion on Steel: Preserving sustainable jobs and growth in Europe. She tells us about her key recommendations in the opinion before its adoption at the June plenary session.
My principal concern is the future viability of the steel industry in Europe. Specifically, this is about 330 000 workers in 23 Member States. All these countries make good products using innovative processes and with skilled workers. What we urgently need in Europe is a level playing-field. We lack an effective external trade policy. For EU steel companies to be competitive, action must be taken more promptly and efficiently and we need sensible penalty tariffs. The European Commission proposal presented on 16 March to abolish low duties is therefore a first step in the right direction.
All parties must meet the relevant market economy criteria, and that includes China. The European Commission proposal for a Directive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must in my view be further calibrated, because it threatens the essence and the existence of the steel industry. Every tonne of steel that is not made in Europe produces far more CO2 emissions. I am talking about steel from China and India which is produced under appalling conditions in human and environmental terms, subsidised by those countries, and then dumped on the market at ruinous prices far below the cost of production in Europe. The recommendations I make in the opinion are therefore not unreasonable: all I want is a level playing-field for the sake of fair competition.
An early warning system is also to be introduced that is triggered as soon as an excess of imports harms EU producers. This should be welcomed, but a warning system only makes sense if there is water to put out the fire: sirens alone will not quench the flames.
For all these reasons we need faster and more effective instruments for protecting industry.
If the EU acts too late, the result will be a deindustrialisation of Europe rather than the sought-after reindustrialisation. The consequences of this would be painful for us at local and regional level.
This interview has been realised for the Committee of the Region's bi-monthly magazine "Regions & Cities of Europe".
