“Europe Is Losing Its Industrial Heart – Mytilineos Sounds the Alarm!”

With a tough and unambiguous statement, Evangelos Mytilineos, president of European Metals, is trying to wake Europe up from its “theoretical” industrial ambitions. In a LinkedIn post, following a meeting with DG GROW Director-General Kerstin Jorna, he stressed that good intentions are not enough: decisions must be made now before Europe’s productive capacity suffers irreversible damage.

Mytilineos identifies three urgent priorities:

1. Revamp of the ETS (Emissions Trading System) Without scientifically grounded product-specific benchmarks or an emergency suspension mechanism, the ETS unfairly raises production costs for energy-intensive industries. “This is not an issue for 2030; it must be addressed now,” he warns.
2. Immediate financing for critical projects European industries are ready to invest in projects supporting the Green Deal and the EU’s industrial strategy. Yet, until the European Competitiveness Fund is activated, he calls for all available EU funding tools to be directed immediately to mature projects in critical raw materials, otherwise strategic autonomy remains a “theoretical ambition.”
3. Reducing energy costs Mytilineos calls Europe’s energy costs “one of the most damaging structural disadvantages” for industry. He demands immediate measures to reduce the overall energy burden, fast improvements to the Clean Industry State Aid Framework (CISAF), and short-term relief for energy-intensive companies.

The intervention takes a dramatic tone: if Brussels does not act quickly, deindustrialization will no longer be a scenario but a daily business reality for Europe, threatening sectors critical to climate neutrality, digital transformation, and defense.

Evangelos Mytilineos thanks Kerstin Jorna for her realism and commitment but reminds that the Steel & Metals Action Plans and the Industrial Accelerator Act must be implemented in practice, at the speed today’s industrial realities demand.

Europe, he concludes, stands at a critical crossroads: either it invests decisively and quickly in its industry or watches its “backbone” crumble before its eyes.

Source: pagenews.gr