21 November 2025 – Aluminium: good exports, bad exports, or how the Commission applies double standards. The steel lobby and the trade unions are currently exerting massive pressure on the European Parliament and the Member States and are calling for a breach of democracy. Accredited CBAM Verifiers: Commission presents draft delegated regulation.
EU Export Restrictions on Aluminium Scrap?
This past Tuesday, 18 November 2025, Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič announced in a speech at the European Aluminium Summit that the European Union intends to introduce export restrictions on aluminium scrap.
Just a few sentences earlier, Šefčovič had referred to the enormous aluminium exports from the EU to the rest of the world, amounting to more than 10 billion euros per year.
Good Exports, Bad Exports – Double Standards by the Commission
While enormous quantities of aluminium leave the European Union every year and are considered “good exports” by the Commissioner, other companies that contribute at least equally to the Union’s economic output are supposed to no longer be allowed to operate freely in the future.
So much for the fair and free trade that Šefčovič claims the EU upholds.
At the expense of a desperately needed recycling industry, often consisting of small and medium-sized enterprises, export restrictions on scrap are now to be introduced, which in turn would subsidise the aluminium-producing industry in a one-sided manner.
A typical behaviour of the Commission in recent years: we do everything for the big corporations, and let SMEs and citizens pay for it.
Is the EU Trade Commissioner Representing National Interests?
To make matters worse, this announcement comes from exactly the Commissioner whose home country, Slovakia, hosts at least three larger aluminium producers that primarily use recycled aluminium. Another indication that this is not about common European interests but about national interests of our so-called Trade Commissioner.
Previously Seen with Steel Tariffs and the Steel and Metals Action Plan
This was already observable with the Steel and Metals Action Plan and the proposals to introduce steel tariffs and to reduce the current import quotas by nearly 50%.
Although both proposals originate mainly from France and are driven by Macron’s former foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné (Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy of the European Commission), they are eagerly supported by Commissioner Šefčovič.
And besides secondary aluminium producers, the Commissioner also has U. S. Steel Košice, a major steel producer (nominal capacity: 5 million tonnes of crude steel per year) operating on the CO2 intensive blast furnace route, located in his own country. A malicious mind might wonder.
Steel Tariffs: EU Steel Lobby Calls for Breach of Democracy
The steel lobby and the trade unions are currently exerting massive pressure on the European Parliament and the Member States.
The fact that such amendments are absolutely necessary to make a law fair and equitable shows the motivation of the steel lobby and the unions – it is only about their own goals, not about the public interest.
Steel Lobby Calls for Introduction on 1 April 2026
Ideally, the associations and unions want the new measure to take effect unchanged before the current safeguard measure expires in June 2026, preferably already on 1 April 2026.
While they initially demanded that a safeguard successor should start on 1 January 2026, this has already proven unfeasible in the required legislative process. With the pressure now being exerted on Parliament and the Member States, they want to prevent a proper and balanced regulation. It cannot be that associations like EUROFER dictate when a law should be introduced.
Secret Messages: Sale of Steel Producers Already Influencing Contract Negotiations
Rumours and emails circulated during the recently concluded Stainless Steel World in Maastricht had already mentioned the requested introduction date of 1 April 2026.
We also have confidential internal corporate messages indicating that, for example, management is instructing the sales department to use corresponding wording and that the sales teams should use 1 April in ongoing contract negotiations.
This is an attempt to put pressure on the steel-processing industry and to force them into negotiations under worse and competition-damaging conditions.
A perfect example of what will happen everywhere in the EU before and after the introduction of steel tariffs and lower quotas: with rising steel prices, the last bit of competitiveness will be squeezed out of the manufacturing sector.
Accredited CBAM Verifiers – Commission Presents Draft Delegated Regulation
Under the cumbersome title “COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) …/… of 20.11.2025 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2023/956 … by specifying the conditions for granting accreditation to verifiers, for the control and oversight of accredited verifiers, for the withdrawal of accreditation and for mutual recognition and peer evaluation of accreditation bodies” the Commission yesterday presented the draft regulation governing how CBAM verifiers are to be accredited by the EU.
Draft Based on Existing EU ETS System
The draft appears to be largely derived from existing regulations for the accreditation of EU ETS verifiers.
In Germany alone, 30 companies are currently accredited to verify CO2 emissions under the EU ETS.
This means that a verifier network is likely to be available significantly faster than previously assumed.
CBAM Soon Just a Sitting Duck?
This also clarifies why the steel lobby is exerting such massive pressure for a safeguard successor: CBAM could turn out to be a “sitting duck” sooner than expected – especially with regard to real emissions data already known to us, which, for example, significantly contradict the assumptions of the Country SEE table.
For importers, this could be good news, because CBAM could be far less critical for them than expected.
Important: Implement Accreditation for Verification Quickly
However, it is now important that, once the final regulation is available, companies get accredited as quickly as possible and that non-European steel producers have their real CO2 emissions ready at hand.
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