Sixty four CEOs of European steelmakers have written an open letter to the Heads of State and Governments in the EU requesting a restoration of balance between industrial, energy and climate policies.

The letter, signed by the likes of Aditya Mittal, Wolfgang Eder and Karl Kohler, CEOs of ArcelorMittal Europe, Voestalpine AG and Tata Steel respectively, urges EU leaders to restore the balance between industrial, energy and climate policies in order preserve the competitiveness of the industries which are at the core of the European economy.

"We all share the ambition to find an effective response to climate change. However, hopes for an early conclusion of a global agreement providing a level playing field have been dashed and, with the best will in the world, the likelihood of an agreement in 2015 creating a truly level playing field is remote," the letter on EUROFER headed paper states.

In the letter, EUROFER states that Europe must 'not again impose on itself unilateral CO2 reduction targets which no-one else follows. It further states that measures adopted in 2008 to protect the competitiveness of the EU industry were time-limited and subject to a reduction factor and called for those measures to be changed.

EUROFER wants the EU ETS to be modified to allow 100% free allowances for the most efficient installations and no reduction factor up to and beyond 2020 – based on realistic benchmarks. The organisation also calls for the CO2 cost passed through in electricity prices by the power sector to be fully offset in the form of free allowances.

Lastly, the letter calls for member states to 'fully exempt energy intensive industries from national decarbonisation surcharges, such as taxes, levies, grid levies and other costs relating to the support of low carbon generation – as long as competitors on global markets do not have to bear such costs.

The letter signs off with "there are solutions for a real win-win EU energy and climate policy without damaging Europe's manufacturing industries.