Cefic urges EU to create “business case” for investment in Europe

Brussels – The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) has urged EU politicians to “make a business case” for investment in the region as global competition intensifies.

EU chemicals makers are facing “enormous structural challenges,” Cefic director general Marco Mensink said in a recent address to the European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee.

This, he linked to “increasing international competition, lack of raw materials, skyrocketing energy and feedstock prices, loss of strategic autonomy [and externalisation of] key value-chains & industrial processes.”

Diminishing competitiveness, warned Mensink, was putting the future of many solutions and technologies needed to achieve the EU 2050 green goals at risk.

As an example, the Cefic leader cited how wind turbines employ carbon fibre in the blades, silicones in lubricants and sealants and resins to keep materials together.

“All these materials are developed by the chemicals industry,” Mensink reminded the European Parliament committee.

EU regional policy frameworks, he continued, do not support sectors that contribute to the EU’s ‘net-zero industry act’ (NZIA) technologies.

Furthermore, the official called for the scope of ‘critical raw material act’ to be broadened beyond metals and to consider all the other materials currently imported to Europe.

“Focusing only on one specific subset of raw materials while neglecting how complex and multifaceted value chains are, will not support Europe’s strategic autonomy,” he warned.

This approach, the European chemicals boss said, will “just shift dependencies downwards” to a different segment of the production process.

“Where the US makes a business case, Europe makes a law. Today, the NZIA focuses only on technologies, but forgets the industries behind these technologies” he said.

“What we are going to see in the future is net-zero technologies made with Chinese steel and American chemicals,” Mensink warned.

Therefore, the Cefic official called for a policy framework that makes the European chemicals industry competitive “on a global stage” and “able to attract the right investments”.

“As chemicals are behind most of the technologies listed in the net-zero industry act, therefore chemicals need to be included in the net-zero industry act and in the critical raw material act,” he suggested.

The industry veteran also warned that Europe should adopt a "holistic vision that does not cherry pick winners in advance", when it comes to policy making.

As such, he said, the EU should promote solutions such as chemical recycling and carbon capture and utilisation to achieve its 2050 green goals.