An organisation is about to be launched that will bring together the leading players in the EU steel industry. The European Steel Technology Platform will gather together enterprises, trade unions, EU and national regulators to present a strategic research agenda for the steel sector, which should lead to the development of a long-term vision and roadmap for the EU steel industry up to 2030. The aim is to help the sector meet the challenges of globalisation, changing supply and demand dynamics, environmental objectives, the streamlining of EU and national legislation and regulation in this field, and EU enlargement with new EU Member States facing extensive restructuring of their steel industries. This new platform aims to identify the steel industry’s technological needs and ways of implementing them. Bringing together the steel industry, research centres, universities, trades unions and the European Commission as well as the other European institutions and member states through this platform will foster an in-depth dialogue between platform members, interested partners and experts. A key objective is to coordinate all instruments and available resources – including EU programmes – in order to achieve critical mass in terms of financial strength, scientific know how and technological excellence.
