We are doing more than just re-branding, we are re-setting the tone of the sector and its engagement with all our stakeholders. European non-ferrous metals are the corner stone of our energy transition, our digitalisation and increasingly importantly our safety and defence.
There can be no energy security, cyber security or strategic security without European metals – a wind turbine made with Chinese aluminium is not energy security; internet cables made with Indian copper are not digital security; and a naval cruiser made with Indonesian nickel, is not defensive security.
We need European made metals!
Therefore, it must not be just a new era for our association, the whole sector in Europe needs a new era. For too long the metals sector of Europe has been on the back foot with over regulation, high energy costs and merciless unfair foreign trade policies pushing us to the brink. This needs to stop now.
The European Commission has over the last year prioritised industrial policy in Europe with a new focus on competitiveness. Inviting Professors Draghi and Letta to table concrete recommendations, President Von del Leyen showed political willingness to acknowledge mistakes and forge ahead. Since then, we have seen a raft of encouraging communications, from the Steel and Metals Action Plan, through the Clean Industrial Deal to RESourceEU all with the aim of bolstering our sector. We can only welcome this political advance in understanding of the critical nature of our sector. EVP Séjourné’s call to “buy European” is also a much-needed shift, when it comes to leveraging EU public procurement and shielding strategic sectors from foreign acquisitions.
However, despite the mighty political words that are spoken, our industry continues to suffer – the last silicon smelter in Europe closed in December 2025. European smelters remain idle across the region, lost in the aftermath of the energy crisis in 2022 and still to return.
Meanwhile, the Chinese opened the largest metal recycling plant in the world at the end of 2024 and India continues to build aluminium and copper plants with vast over capacity compared to their own markets with only one goal – to dominate global markets. A new, massive primary aluminium smelter has been announced in the US, too. While all this is happening, Europe is still struggling to slow down the curtailments and shutdowns.
We now need action on the ground – we welcome the forthcoming measures on aluminium scrap exports and encourage the Commission to look into the same problem for copper with urgency. We need proper relief from high energy costs, and the Clean Industrial State Aid Framework (CISAF) is unworkable when it cripples any support through dogmatic restrictions and conditionalities. Also, when it states that only clean energy generated on site can count towards funding, it is clear that the CISAF doesn’t understand our business – we would need a space the size of Bilbao to install the solar our aluminium smelter requires in a year!
New options like the Green Pool or the Italian concept need to be deployed now across Europe. And we need an end to inflexible permitting interpretations that literally stop every strategic project under the Critical Raw Materials Act from being built in Europe. Importantly, we need an emergency break to any ETS-related cost increase, starting with the fallback benchmarks as of January 2026. We can’t possibly seek to regain competitiveness of our industry, while imposing unscientific and punitive ETS costs on them!
Finally, there is the question of finance – we need dedicated finance for our strategic projects. RESourceEU has made a start with the Finance Hub but that needs to be implemented quickly and provide capital support for projects. We also need to see innovative tools deployed, such as a floor price for critical metals like gallium. How can we invest in our own gallium plant if we are conscious there is always a risk the Chinese will manipulate prices to make our investment unviable.
There is lots to do! And the European Institutions need to speed up and get things done that will make a difference now. In five years it might be too late, and we can all kiss good-bye to European strategic autonomy.
Let’s hope that just like our association, the European Institutions will recognise that it is time for a new dawn for our sector with more ambition, more desire, more dynamism and ultimately more European Metals!
Evangelos Mytilineos
Executive Chairman of Metlen Energy & Metals
President of European Metals
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