EU renews vows to kick Russian steel addiction, buy Ukrainian

Flags of the European Union and Ukraine are seen at the entrance of the European Parliament during a demonstration in front of the European Parliament on March 1, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. (Omar Havana/Getty Images) Prefer on Google by Chris Powers EU lawmakers provisionally agreed on new safeguards for EU steelmakers with key provisions in place to ensure the eventual phase-out of Russian steel imports and Ukraine's continued access to the EU market in a late-night meeting in Brussels held on April 13. As of July 2026, the EU is expected to limit steel imports to 18.3 million tonnes per year, a 47% reduction on what is currently allowed. This is intended to protect Europe's steel industry from a glut on the world market. Imports made above and beyond that cap would be hit with a 50% tariff. The agreement is supplemented with a separate joint statement that recalls a planned trajectory for phasing out Russian steel by 2028, EU diplomats and parliamentary sources told the Kyiv Independent. The EU banned "finished" Russian steel in 2022, referring to steel products ready for use. However, EU countries secured an exemption until 2028  for "semi-finished" steel — that is, Russian steel partly processed into basic slabs — which then requires work before it is a finished product. The main beneficiary of that gradual approach is Belgium, which parliamentary sources told the Kyiv Independent was one of the main countries that had originally lobbied against an immediate ban to also cover semi-finished steel. Belgium alone accounted for 40% of Russian semi-finished steel imports in 2024, almost double that of second-place Italy, a country with a population five times larger. And the current phase-out plan is set up in such a way that it makes it likely that importers would seek to lobby for an extension near the end. The drop from 2028 to 2029 is expected to be much more abrupt than the gradual phasing out in the preceding years. And as of 2025, the EU imports more semi-finished steel from Russia than from any other country, accounting for 41.8% of total imports, according to the Ukrainian think tank GMK Center. Amendments proposed by the European Parliament's trade committee in February  advocated for an immediate end to Russian steel imports, stating simply that "imports of products for which the steel was melted and poured in the Russian Federation or in Belarus should not be granted access to the Union market." However, that would contradict already existing law, i.e., the EU's 12th sanctions package , which includes the phase-out plan, and so the amendment could not go through, EU diplomats and parliamentary sources told the Kyiv Independent. "With the agreement, the parliament, the council, and the commission could jointly declare the importance of swiftly phasing out all imports of Russian steel products," said MEP Karin Karlsbro, who led negotiations over the file. The hope is that, with the three EU institutions re-emphasizing the phase-out plan together, there will be little chance of extending the the Russphase-out deadlines-out further into the future. It also puts the phase-out on a stronger legal footing. "Sanctions are only a temporary measure, and continually need to be renewed," Svitlana Taran, researcher at the European Policy Center think tank, told the Kyiv Independent. The joint statement accompanies a regulation that, once passed, becomes permanent EU law. Ukraine has been able to export steel to the EU without tariffs as a result of Autonomous Trade Measures agreed on by the EU since 2022 in response to Russia's full-scale invasion. These measures have had to be reviewed and renewed, which injected long-term uncertainty into Ukraine's trade relationship with the EU. "Under the agreed new measure, Ukraine will have access to a system of free-of-duty tariff quotas," a European Commission spokesperson told the Kyiv Independent. They, and EU diplomatic and parliamentary sources, all confirmed that there is also agreed wording to make allowances for "a candidate country, such as Ukraine, facing an exceptional and immediate security situation" when allocating future quotas. Taken together, that should guarantee Ukraine continued access to the EU market, also important for Europeans, as Ukraine is the fifth largest source of imported finished steel. With Monday's agreement, the next steps are for the text to be cleaned and voted on by the European Parliament and the European Council, with everyone expecting its entry into force on July 1, when the current measures are set to expire. Chris Powers is the Brussels Correspondent with the Kyiv Independent. He is tasked with reporting on EU news and policy developments relevant to Ukraine, bridging the gap between Brussels and Kyiv. He was formerly the Defense and Tech Editor at the EU media outlet Euractiv. Chris holds a BA in History from the University of Cambridge and an MA in European Studies from the College of Europe.