36 years after the last action plan for the steel market (Davignon plan in 1977), EU launched in June 2013 the action plan for the European steel industry to help this sector confront today’s challenges and lay the foundations for future competitiveness by fostering innovation, creating economic growth and jobs.
With a turnover reaching EUR 170 Billion and an important presence in the value chain of the industrial processing from many sectors, the European steel industry holds a strategic place in the economy, the steel having a significant cross-border dimension: across the EU, 500 production facilities are distributed in 23 states. Under these circumstances, Europe needs basic industries to stimulate the other branches in the reindustrialisation process. “The steel industry has a promising future in Europe. By continuing to lead in innovative products, its traditional strength, it can achieve a globally competitive edge. With today’s blueprint for the revival of the steel sector, we send a clear signal to the industry that it is a strategically important sector for Europe and a motor for growth. The EU needs its real economy more than ever to underpin the economic recovery and we aim for industry to deliver 20% of GDP by 2020. This is the start of a process; I am committed to monitoring the situation carefully so we can adapt our efforts as needed. Within a year, we will look at whether the actions proposed are having the effect we aim for”, Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, said.
In Europe, the demand for steel is 27% below the pre-crisis level, and the workforce in this sector decreased by 10% (in 2007-2011), but the EU remains the biggest steel producer in the world, its capacity amounting to 177 million tonnes of steel/year, which represents 11% of the global production. Although it has dropped, according to OECD, increases are estimated to 2.3 billion tonnes of steel by 2025 at world level, due to the needs in the transport, construction and mechanical engineering sectors, especially on emerging markets. Therefore, it becomes essential that the EU steel industry should be able to consolidate its position on this competitive market.
In order to encourage the development of the steel sector, EU stimulates innovation by promoting eco-technologies for the development of new steel types and by stimulating innovation, in particular for the extremely expensive pilot phases. Therefore, in 2014-2020 the research projects will be financed through the Horizon 2020 programme, and the steel sector will benefit from the European partnership on innovation in the field of raw materials and from a financial support reaching EUR 280 Million in the same programming period, through the Research Fund for Coal and Steel.
Besides the financial support for the development of this sector, the new EU poli-tical strategy will also determine the adoption and the application of an appropriate regulatory framework through measures which include the evaluation by the end of 2013 of the global regulation task imposed to the steel industry by different policies and its impact on competitiveness. By means of the launched strategy, the EC also intends to optimise the access to the external markets and to ensure fair competition conditions to support steel exports in the EU.
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