CEFIC has called on the European Commission and EU Member States to “immediately design and implement closely coordinated pan-European measures to limit the impact of energy prices vis-à-vis competing economies, increase energy supply and incentivise reductions in energy consumption”, both for the upcoming winter and beyond. “Skyrocketing gas and electricity prices vis-à-vis competing economies, the potential risk of gas supply shortages and mandates of electricity consumption reduction are putting hundreds of chemical plants at risk throughout Europe,” the association said.

The European Commission has published a Restrictions Roadmap under REACH, describing this as “an important step forward to provide detailed information on all ongoing work on future restrictions under the EU chemical legislation”.

CEFIC has released the first in a series of studies about the likely impact of the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS). It subsequently joined other industry leaders in calling on European Commission and EU Member State governments “to work together to develop an EU Chemical Industry Transition Pathway to sustain the massive investments required to meet the objectives of the EU Green Deal”.

Europe's main trade association for chemicals gave a mixed greeting to the European Commissions's new sustainability strategy

The European Commission (EC) has published a new Chemical Strategy for Sustainability and invited the European Parliament and the Council to endorse this and to contribute to its implementation. It envisages revising REACH “in the most targeted way possible”, while also taking other initiatives to improve legislation.

According to an analysis by CEFIC of data reported through the EU’s Safety Gate, 2020 saw a steep increase in imports of hand sanitisers that were not compliant with the EU chemicals safety rules. These were either not marked as flammable or containing methanol, as required by EU Classification & Labelling rules, or had insufficient ethanol to kill viruses, as required by the Biocides Regulation, CEFIC noted.

The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) has reported that EU27 chemical production fell by 1.9% from 2019 to 2020. It expects 3% and 22% growth in 2021 and 2022 respectively. However, “longer-term economic outlook remains highly uncertain due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its continued economic impacts”.

Ahead of the European Council meeting on 17 July, CEFIC called on EU member states “to urgently agree an EU Recovery Plan to restart Europe’s economy and kick off investments towards a green and digital transition”.

According to the association, COVID-19 has been “a timely reminder that Europe needs its own robust industrial capacity” and such a plan could turn the crisis into “an opportunity to build a more resilient European economy whilst delivering on the European Green Deal objectives”. The chemicals industry will be critical to this.