At the session of the Council for Competitiveness in Brussels on Monday, February 29, the ministers for trade and finances of the European Union countries reassessed the global competitiveness of the European industry with emphasis on energy-intensive sectors. They concentrated above all on the complicated situation in the steel industry.

On behalf of Poland, the presiding EU country, the minister for economic affairs Henk Kamp summarized the findings from the session in the following way: “To solve the crisis in the steel industry we need immediate solutions. They can be applied also to other industrial sectors since these problems have a common denominator. In the first place, we must, in next to no time, speed up antidumping measures. In the second place, the steel industry should be able to make use of the European Union funds for innovations, for pilot projects and new business models. Thirdly, we need to get rid of needless regulations that are keeping down the competitiveness of our energy-intensive industrial sectors. Our companies must have equal conditions on the market.”

The ministers also asked the European Commission and the member states of the EU to continue in a pragmatic and results-oriented approach during the antidumping investigation with a view to accelerating, at least by two months, the implementation of antidumping procedures which would be applicable at any time and would respect EU legislation and would not endanger product quality.