The overarching strategy has two major blind spots in my view. First, the industry's struggles also reflect a structural deterioration of competitiveness that will persist, given that clean energy prices - a key competitiveness factor - will be high in many current production locations.
That's something a EU strategy for this sector must take into account, to then ultimately enable and manage re-location within Europe to locations with better long-term clean energy potential, as we argued a few times on this platform recently, e.g. here: bsky.app/profile/ph-j...
Second blind spot: If the energy-intensive industry really still is the "backbone of the EU economy" and indispensable e.g. for EU defense industry, then the willingness to pay for metals should be high enough for the industry to get by without large subsidies (apart from decarbonisation support).
link to the action plan: ec.europa.eu/commission/p...