The latest decisions announced by the European Commission regarding new measures to protect European steel once again offer only a partial response to the scale of the crisis our value chain is facing.
These measures fail to safeguard the entire value chain — the one that transforms, processes, and shapes the industrial future of Europe. Thousands of companies, especially SMEs operating in the electromechanical and steel processing sectors, remain exposed to unfair competition that threatens their survival every single day.
For months, we have been collecting reports and testimonies from those who can no longer bear the cost of energy, who suffer the pressure of imported products sold at unrealistic prices, and who see orders and production lines come to a halt. We’ve witnessed colleagues shut down, families in distress, and markets turning elsewhere.
Globalization, as we knew it, has lost its balance due to distortive industrial policies from non-EU countries (with China at the forefront), uneven speeds in ecological transition, unsustainable energy costs, and growing international tensions.
In today’s context, competing has become impossible. The risk is not only losing market share — it’s losing jobs, skills, and the dignity of an entire sector.
It’s time to say it clearly: our companies can’t hold on any longer.
In our meetings in Brussels, a shared truth emerged: without immediate and targeted interventions to restore fair market conditions, we will witness downsizing, relocations, and production collapses.
These are not theoretical scenarios — they are European companies already forced to suspend shifts, cut investments, and revise employment plans.
We need a structural and definitive response. No more delays.
We need a Europe that defends the entire value chain — not just raw materials, but the added value created by those who work, innovate, and transform.
Now more than ever, we must stand together: businesses, associations, institutions, and local communities. We are not asking for privileges. We are asking for fair rules, clear timelines, and an industrial vision.
We ask that Europe also protect those who, every day, give life to the products that enter our homes, our cities, and our infrastructure.
We cannot allow the productive heart of the Union to be dismantled piece by piece under the pressure of competition that bypasses tariffs, evades controls, and exploits regulatory gaps to flood our market.
Defending European steel transformation means defending millions of jobs, our strategic autonomy, and Europe’s right to generate value within its own borders.
We can’t wait any longer. It’s time to mobilize, to raise our voices, and to demand policies that don’t leave behind those who work and invest here, in Europe.
ESN will continue to bring these demands to institutional forums, but only with a united and determined value chain can we obtain the answers — and above all, the concrete actions — that are urgently needed.
Today, resilience is not enough. Today, we must demand that the European Union protect those who have been building its future since before its inception.
With determination and a sense of urgency,
Franco Felisa
President – Electromechanics Synergy Network (ESN)