Competition policy – annual report 2024

Added: 8a. Expresses its profound disapproval at the decision by the ArcelorMittal Group to cut up to 1 400 jobs in western Europe, almost half of them in France; deplores the plan to relocate some of these jobs to India and Poland; stresses that the group nevertheless made a profit of EUR 1.3 billion and paid out more than EUR 1.5 billion to its shareholders in 2024; recalls that over recent years ArcelorMittal has received several billion euros in public support from the European Union and from Member States, including France; calls on the Commission and the Member States to take measures to ensure that companies benefiting from public support cannot, as ArcelorMittal is doing, close industrial sites, draw up redundancy plans, relocate their activities, pay dividends to their shareholders and renounce their green transition objectives; considers that current European law significantly hampers the ability of Member States to bring strategic companies or sectors of public interest under public control; calls therefore on the Commission to propose a revision of EU competition rules; urges the French government to nationalise the company in order to protect workers and preserve steelmaking as a strategic industry;

Wording as published by the EP, in English. PE772.536v01-00