Conservative MEPs have welcomed recognition from the European Commission that stronger anti-dumping policies are needed to address the crisis in the steel industry.
The encouraging news for Britain's beleaguered steel industry came during a debate in the European Parliament on steel which was added to the week's agenda following pressure from Anthea McIntyre and other Conservative MEPs.
The debate gave the Commission opportunity to make a statement on measures being taken to ensure that British steel is able to compete on an equal footing on the global market.
Commissioner for the Internal Market Elzbieta Bienkowska said she recognised that stronger policies were needed to deal with alleged "dumping", which has seen the EU flooded with cheap Chinese steel, threatening the domestic industry
She also confirmed that a range of trade defence instruments were being used, such as anti-subsidy measures and registration of imports.Miss McIntyre,
Conservative MEP for the West Midlands, said: "We demanded this debate in the hope that putting the commission on the spot would produce something helpful. So it has proved."In Miss McIntyre's own region a study has shown that 260,000 jobs are threatened directly or indirectly by the potential collapse of the steel industry.She said: "The meeting of EU ministers earlier this month, called for by our Business Secretary Sajid Javid, was clear that we needed to speed up investigations into unfair trade practices.
"This crisis is a threat to British jobs and livelihoods and the Commission now needs follow its words with action and make sure we are using all the anti-dumping measures that the EU has at its disposal.
"Our steel sector doesn't have time to wait".