2 October 2025 – What the press thought it overheard at yesterday’s “Emergency Steel Social Summit” sounded like a pipe dream for European steelmakers – and was then eagerly and uncritically released into the media cosmos. But on closer inspection, very little remains of this dream.
Emergency Steel Social Summit: Just a Pipe Dream?
It all sounds rather like a pipe dream for European steelmakers: according to the press, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy of the European Commission, Stéphane Séjourné, was supposed to have announced at this summit that the EU would cut steel import quotas and raise tariffs to 50%. In other words, precisely what EU steelmakers have been fantasising about for months.
Higher steel tariffs? Officially nothing so far!
But the fact remains: there has been no official statement from Séjourné. He did not attend the joint press conference of the EUROFER and industriAll Europe associations.
The reporting outlets rely exclusively on statements by steel lobby representatives, unions, and so-called “people familiar with the matter”. The latter is a very elastic term which often boils down to nothing more than rumour-mongering errand boys.
For instance, in the Reuters article there is only one quote from the president of the European steel association EUROFER. According to the report, he said in broad strokes that Séjourné had assured participants of the “Emergency Steel Social Summit” that their message had been understood.
Only splashy headlines about alleged new or tougher steel tariffs
Other media outlets likewise admit further down in their texts – after splashy headlines about alleged new or tougher steel tariffs – that there has been no official statement from the Commission, and that Séjourné himself did not go into detail at the summit on what the Commission actually intends to do.
The near-identical press releases from EUROFER and industriAll Europe also contain no reference to Commission announcements – only the same old demands which, if implemented, would amount to the strangulation of the European economy.
Errand boys doing the dirty work again?
There is a yawning void behind the alleged claims that the Commission plans to raise tariffs or cut quotas. Neither EUROFER nor industriAll Europe officials have said any such thing. Once again, it is only the errand boys of associations, unions, and steel companies – those supposedly “familiar with the matter” – who are spreading rumours.
And as with errand boys and the supposedly well-informed, one need only recall the rumours in the run-up to the last EU Safeguard Review: at that time, people “familiar with the matter” loudly claimed that the tariff rate quotas would be cut by 50% and tariffs raised to 50%. The actual final outcome should be well known.
So more than vague assurances that “the Commission will do something” is unlikely to be what the participants of the “Emergency Steel Summit” got from EUROFER and industriAll Europe. Just as with the other associations and companies that Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy of the European Commission, has met in recent weeks and months.
Read more on Steel News by Gerber Group
