10 July 2026 – ArcelorMittal collects billions in European subsidies, scraps green-steel projects, shifts jobs to India and is now even abolishing the Europe CEO position. A corporation that increasingly treats Europe as nothing more than a paying office.
ArcelorMittal: Subsidies In, European Jobs Out
The pattern is as simple as it is brazen. At the end of July, the CEO of ArcelorMittal Europe will leave his post, and no successor will follow. Instead of appointing a new European chief, the European division heads will now report directly to Group CEO Aditya Mittal in Luxembourg. The signal is clear: Europe no longer needs its own leadership. It is enough as a paying office.
The new corporate headquarters in Luxembourg is the symbolic centerpiece of a strategy that can only be called cynical. Billions of euros in public subsidies have flowed into Luxembourg’s steel industry over decades. The state-co-financed AGORA partnership was supposed to secure jobs and stabilize sites. Today, ArcelorMittal plans to relocate up to 1,150 jobs in Luxembourg alone to India or Poland. Across Europe, the total is expected to exceed 5,600 jobs. When questioned by the European Works Council, management remains silent. “Social dialogue is currently almost non-existent,” the EWC secretary stated dryly.
All Green-Steel Projects in Germany Scrapped
At the same time, the group scrapped all green-steel projects in Germany in 2025. Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt were supposed to be equipped with electric arc furnaces for EUR 1.3 billion, supported by almost EUR 1 billion in taxpayers’ money. ArcelorMittal backed away: the framework conditions were too uncertain, hydrogen too expensive.
The same company received around EUR 650 million in France for two new electric arc furnaces and celebrated this commitment together with the EU Commission as a milestone in decarbonization. While Brussels applauded, ArcelorMittal internally approved the expansion of CO2-intensive blast-furnace capacity in India. By 2030, production there is set to almost triple.
This Is Not Industrial Policy – This Is Pure Arbitrage
This is not industrial policy. It is pure arbitrage. Subsidies are collected in Europe, growth is realized in India, and costs are externalized onto European taxpayers, workers and SMEs. With its now second nationalization vote, the French National Assembly has at least named the absurdity of this situation, even if nationalization remains the wrong answer to the right problem.
The Real Question is Another One
The real question is another one: why have the EU Commission and national governments allowed themselves to be led around the circus ring by the nose for years? Demands for subsidies and market protection are reflexively fulfilled, without enforcing counterperformance, without clawback clauses, without clear conditions for site security. Industrial policy thus degenerates into redistribution from bottom to top, from the real economy to a global corporation that optimizes its profits and socializes its risks.
ArcelorMittal needs Europe. But Europe should stop pretending that Europe needs ArcelorMittal.
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