18
May
2026
Watch
Negative trade-related effects of global overcapacity on the Union steel market (debate)
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we support the steel agreement, but - let us say it - it lacks courage. We would have liked to have included steel products from the outset, because companies and workers cannot wait and the market does not wait for bureaucracy. Postponing for six months does not respond to the reality of our industrial districts, it is a time that becomes a heavy cost for those who produce, invest and give work. We ask the Commission for a clear commitment: include the products of the Annexes by December 2026, without further postponement and without ambiguity. As early as 2016, President Juncker denounced the difficulties of steel. It's been ten years. Meanwhile, non-European players distort the market, compete unfairly and invade us with cheap products. Any unjustified delay is not neutral, it has a price: Companies pay, industries pay, workers pay. We say it forcefully: Without steel, there is no industry. Without industry, there is no strategic autonomy. Without strategic autonomy, Europe remains dependent, fragile and less competitive. We ask the Commission not for words, but for deeds: concretely protect European steel and do so immediately, with the pragmatism that the ECR has always called for. Less ideology...