Brussels, 19 November 2025 – EU Commission Vice-President for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič yesterday announced the launch of preparatory work for a ‘balanced’ trade measure on the alleged “scrap leakage” – to be adopted by spring 2026. Recycling Europe stresses that to date, the EU Commission’s own monitoring has shown no evidence of ‘scrap leakage’. Claims to the contrary are paradoxical, unfounded and misleading.

Europe’s recycling sector, comprising tens of thousands of SMEs and larger companies that provide non-outsourceable jobs across the EU, is a proven engine of circularity, decarbonisation, resource autonomy, and material security. We strongly welcome the Vice-President’s recognition of this role.

We also welcome the Vice-President’s commitment to bringing long-overdue certainty to Europe’s recycling industry and to the domestic and international customers who depend on it. Europe cannot decarbonise without its recycling industry – and the recycling industry cannot thrive without strong domestic demand for recycled materials and viable market outlets for its surplus of recycled materials.

As the recycling side of the value chain, we expect to be fully and equally involved in the upcoming consultation. “The entire value chain wins when decisions are based on numbers, not noise – we, Europe’s recyclers, are ready to engage”, said Olivier François, President of Recycling Europe.

We are prepared to work constructively with the European Commission on the design of the measure, to ensure that any trade measure taken is evidence-based, proportionate and does not advance the interests of one sector at the expense of another.