The EU plans to reduce steel imports by 15%

Euronews

19-03-2025

The European Commission unveiled on Monday a plan to better channel up to €10 trillion in bank deposits across the bloc into much-needed strategic investments.
'Currently, too few European citizens make a decent return on their hard-earned savings, at least not in a simple and cost-efficient way,' EU Commissioner for Financial Services Maria Luis Albuquerque told reporters in Brussels. 'This is regrettable and represents a loss to us all,' she added.
Capital in the EU isn't lacking: European households save €1.4 trillion annually compared to €800 billion in the US — yet €300 billion of those European savings flow into non-EU markets each year.
The proposed Savings and Investments Union (SIU) aims to address these missed opportunities by improving the channelling of savings into productive investments, unlocking the full potential of the bloc's capital markets for both companies and citizens.
'Our goal must be to make investing in Europe the obvious choice by creating the conditions that will allow offering attractive opportunities, competitive returns, and low barriers,' Albuquerque argued.
Mario Draghi's landmark report on competitiveness warned last year that the EU will need at least €750-800 billion per year by 2030 to stay competitive against global players such as the US and China.
'We have reached the point where, without action, we will have to either compromise our welfare, our environment or our freedom," the former Italian PM said last September, calling on member states to swiftly respond to avoid being left behind on the global stage.
Yet public funding alone will not suffice to match the bloc's ambitions, so the EU is exploring ways to further mobilize private capital and facilitate access to finance for EU companies.
Under the Savings and Investments Union, the Commission will address barriers preventing insurers, banks, and pension funds from investing in equity.
It will also review the EU's rules on securitization, 'focusing on due diligence, transparency, and prudential requirements for banks and insurers, as this will free up resources from banks and allow better support for companies,' the Commissioner said.
The EU is also counting on the European Investment Bank Group and national promotional banks to attract private investors into co-financing projects that support the bloc's economy and political goals.
At the same time, reducing inefficiencies within the single market and removing regulatory and supervisory barriers for cross-border operations will aim to help businesses scale across the EU.
'European firms are unable to enjoy the scale and synergies of the single market. This is costly and represents a competitive disadvantage for the EU,' Albuquerque said.
The EU's banking sector remains fragmented and small compared to the US market value of its biggest banks. For instance, JPMorgan is larger than the combined market capitalization of the top ten banks in Europe, according to Factset.
The Commission also plans to introduce measures ensuring that all financial market participants are treated equally across the EU, including increased use of convergence tools and a reallocation of supervisory responsibilities between the national and EU levels.
The communication has provoked mixed signals among stakeholders.
For Thierry Philipponnat, chief economist at Finance Watch, the SIU is a "repackaging" of the 2020 objectives for the Capital Markets Union.
'Private capital cannot meet Europe's vast investment needs, particularly on climate. Without a rethink on public finance, SIU won't deliver,' Philipponat said, adding that the problem is the lack of political will from member states.
The European Banking Federation, on the other hand, believes the SUI is much more than a rebranding exercise because it's broader than the long-stalled Capital Markets Union project.
"The idea (of the SUI) is very much to encourage citizens to continue to invest in financial markets for their own future and to diversify, but also most likely to get a better return in the long term for their retirement," Sébastien de Brouwer, deputy CEO of the European Banking Federation, told Euronews.
Both regulation and supervision will also need to be reviewed and possibly streamlined and simplified where necessary to ensure that banks remain "competitive, profitable and stable" and that banks' lending capacity is further increased or unleashed, de Brouwer said.
At a time when the sector is facing 25% US customs duties and competition from Asia is putting pressure on European producers, the Commission announced Wednesday that it would limit steel imports by 15% from 1 April.
'In the space of a few years, global overcapacities - particularly in Asia - have hit our plants' order books hard,' Commission Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné said while introducing an action plan for steel and metals industries, adding: 'This is priority number one: We need to protect our steelworks from unfair foreign competition - wherever it may come from.'
Since the Americans slapped a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports into the US, the EU has been worried that it will see more global steel overcapacities flooding into its market. In 2018, during a trade dispute with the first Trump administration, the EU introduced a safeguard measure to limit steel imports. This has since been renewed several times.
From April onwards, the Commission will be stepping up these quotas to obtain a further 15% reduction in imports. It has also announced that it will present a replacement to the safeguard clause, due to expire in 2026, in the third quarter of 2025.
As Euronews already reported, the EU action plan on steel and aluminium also includes an investigation on aluminium on the EU market for possible safeguard measures.
'Europe must be a global steel player, not a playground,' Stéphane Séjourné warned.
To protect its market from unfair competition from global players, the EU also plans to introduce a "melted and poured" rule for metals imports. It should prevent foreign importers from circumventing trade defence measures, such as anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures, by doing the ultimate stage of the production process in a third country not subject to the measures, before shipment to the EU.
Under the new rule, the Commission will be able to act against the country where the metal was originally melted to eliminate the possibility to change the origin of the metal product by performing minimal transformation.
US President Donald Trump has described a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "good call."
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the call lasted around an hour and was aimed at aligning Ukraine's requests and needs with Russia's to strike a ceasefire deal.
"We are very much on track," Trump said, adding that the White House would issue a full statement "shortly."
The call between Trump and Zelenskyy comes a day after the US president spoke to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday.
Our journalists are working on this story and will update it as soon as more information becomes available.