Parliament asks EU commissioner for steel safeguards’ review

The new European trade commissioner Phil Hogan has received a letter signed by a range of members of the European parliament (MEPs) about the EU safeguard system for steel imports. The MEPs are requesting a review of the system.

In the letter, seen by Kallanish, the MEPs note that the review carried out in 2019 “… corrected certain aspects, but the situation has since deteriorated further.” According to the officials who signed the letter, this change in circumstances has triggered the need for a further review of the system.

“Whilst import volumes have decreased during 2019 due to the weakening market, the import market share did not follow this trend, illustrating that imports are still having a destabilising effect on the EU market,” the letter says. “When demand picks up in 2020, as expected, there will be an accumulation of available quota volumes at a level massively above that of traditional imports.”

The first signatory on the letter is Inmaculada Rodriguez-Pinero, a Spanish member of the socialist group in Europe. It also includes support by members of other political factions such as Massimilano Salini from the European People’s Party and Helmut Scholz from the Nordic Green Left.

The European steelmakers’ association Eurofer has been asking for a further review of the EU safeguard system for steel imports since last year.