During a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety (ENVI) of the European Parliament, PiS MEP Jadwiga Wiśniewska criticized the European Commission’s proposed revision of the regulation on critical raw materials, pointing out that the proposed changes are merely cosmetic and do not address the most important challenges facing European industry.
“The revision proposed by the Commission is nothing more than window dressing intended to create the impression that EU institutions are taking action. Unfortunately, it does not address key issues, such as the protection of the European critical raw materials industry,” the MEP emphasized.
Jadwiga Wiśniewska drew particular attention to the dire situation of the coking sector in the European Union, including the largest producer of blast furnace coke, — JSW Koks S.A., which produces approximately 3.5 million metric tons of coke annually and is a vital component of the European supply chain for the steel industry and strategic sectors such as defense, automotive, and infrastructure.
The PiS MEP noted that the company is currently under significant pressure from rising regulatory costs, including those resulting from the EU ETS, and is also facing growing competition from cheaper coke imports from third countries, particularly China and Indonesia. In her view, this is leading to a deepening crisis in the sector and a real risk of losing key production capacity in the European Union.
In her speech, she called on the European Commission to urgently recognize coke production facilities as strategic to the EU economy and to consider exempting them from the full costs of the ETS. She also emphasized the need to introduce effective market protection mechanisms, including import restrictions and tariffs on coke from outside the EU, as well as exempting coking coal mines from the provisions of the Methane Regulation.
“I call for a rational and realistic amendment to the Critical Raw Materials Regulation. Without it, we risk losing production capacity and becoming even more dependent on supplies from third countries,” she noted.
At the same time, the MEP submitted a written question to the European Commission, in which she drew attention to the deteriorating situation of the coking sector in the EU. In the document, she emphasized the importance of JSW Koks S.A. to the European economy and pointed out the threats arising from rising regulatory costs and competitive pressure from outside the EU.
In her question, Jadwiga Wiśniewska asked the European Commission to clarify whether it intends to recognize the coking sector as strategic for the EU’s economic security, whether it is considering reducing the burdens arising from the EU ETS system for coke producers, and whether it plans to introduce market protection measures, such as quantitative limits or tariffs on coke imports from outside the EU.
According to the PiS MEP, a lack of decisive action in this area could lead to serious consequences for European industry and the economic security of the entire European Union.
