Later Wednesday the commission will set out a package of draft laws and measures to implement the European Union's climate change and energy strategy.
But Voestalpine CEO Wolfgang Eder said the E.U.'s CO2 emission targets for 2013 to 2020 threaten the company's competitiveness, and will eventually force Voestalpine to move production to lower-cost countries.
Eder hoped negotiations will exempt some emission-heavy industries - among them the steel industry.
"Without an exemption Voestalpine would have to pay between EUR200 million and EUR400 million a year for emission certificates, on top of the EUR200 million we are spending on environmentally friendly technology," he said.
"This clearly would make us no longer competitive," Eder said, adding without an exemption, Voestalpine will have to "revise the previous position that no production would leave Austria."
He said Voestalpine is considering different scenarios for moving production abroad. One scenario is to raise the production capacity of the flat steel plant Voestalpine plans to build in the coming years in a Black Sea country. It should be in production by 2012-2013.
Instead of the 5 million metric tons of steel capacity previously assumed, the capacity could be raised to 7 million tons a year, with production capacity in Austria reduced accordingly, Eder said.
This would mean two of the Linz, Austria-based blast furnaces which are up for renewal, wouldn't be renewed and instead moved abroad, Eder said.
A decision will be made in the autumn after the details of the European Commissions CO2 regime has been negotiated into place, Eder said.