Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he, his ministers and his officials have had with the European Commission on the situation in the steel industry.

My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills has engaged with the European Commission and our European partners. He has spoken with a number of European Commissioners in Brussels; Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom (Trade), Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska (Internal Market) and Vice President Jyrki Katainen (Jobs and Competitiveness), and stressed the importance of this issue. He has had positive talks with the Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on progressing the approval of the UK’s Energy Intensive Industries compensation scheme.

I raised the issue with Matthias Machnig, State Secretary for the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. In addition, the Secretary of State hasraised the issue with his EU counterparts, including those in Luxembourg, France, Italy and Spain. ​Hecalled for an urgent EU Council meeting on steel, and I am pleased that the Luxembourg Presidency has scheduled a Competitiveness Council on9 November specifically to discuss the EU steel industry.