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Steel and Metals Action Plan
In March 2025 the European Commission published its European Steel and Metals Action Plan outlining the strategic importance of the steel and metals sectors for the EU's economic security and industrial stability. It highlights the challenges these sectors face, including high energy costs, international competition, decarbonisation investment needs, and regulatory burden.
The action plan focuses on six main pillars: ensuring access to clean and affordable energy, preventing carbon leakage, promoting and protecting European industrial capacities, promoting circularity for metals, defending quality industrial jobs, and derisking through lead markets and support to investments. It includes measures to lower energy costs, create lead markets for low-carbon products, increase circularity, level the international playing field, create quality jobs, and leverage investments.
The plan also addresses the need to deploy decarbonisation technologies in the sector, the importance of recycling, and the challenges posed by global overcapacities. It proposes various actions to support the metals industries, including trade defence measures, public support schemes, and initiatives to promote circularity and quality industrial jobs.
The document emphasises the need for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of the EU's steel and metals sectors. The European metals industries are committed to investing in decarbonisation technologies; however, the current economic context makes this difficult. Without robust action and investment, the risk of plant closures and industry decline remains real, with serious consequences for key economic regions across Europe.
The Clean Industrial Deal and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy announced a month prior introduced a range of measures and the need for a concrete action plan for the metals sectors. The focus is on the key competitiveness challenges of lowering energy costs, creating lead markets for low-carbon products, increasing circularity, levelling the international playing field, creating quality jobs, and leveraging investments. The EU will continue to rely on strong global partnerships to achieve its clean industrial objectives.
The Action Plan addresses key issues hindering Europe's metals industries from thriving and decarbonising. It proposes measures to offer immediate relief and support their decarbonisation efforts and investment decisions. The transition pathway, released with this plan, offers further analysis of the industry's needs and challenges, reflecting stakeholders' perspectives.
What’s in it for hydrogen?
The Action Plan outlines several hydrogen-specific items that are crucial for the decarbonisation of the steel and metals industries. Hydrogen is highlighted as a key enabler of decarbonisation, particularly for primary steel production and providing high-temperature heat in other metals industries. Direct reduction using hydrogen is identified as the most promising option to decarbonise primary steel production.
The document emphasises the need for an abundant and affordable supply of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen to ensure a competitive transition. The Commission in November 2025 also adopted the delegated act on low-carbon hydrogen to provide clarity for suppliers, off-takers, and investors, with flexible rules to achieve the desired greenhouse gas emission reduction goals to produce low-carbon fuels.
Additionally, the Industrial Accelerator Act, published by the Commission in March 2026 included various elements that are aimed to ramp up Europe’s strategic industrial activities, including its low-carbon steel production. Therein, the Commission proposed mandatory low-carbon steel quotas in public procurement tenders, thereby providing fertile ground for a growing lead market. The Accelerator Act also clarified that the low-carbon steel certification and labelling scheme will be aligned with the steel classification framework that is already ongoing under the Ecodesign structure.
Links to legislation and additional information
