Brussels, 26/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani is proposing that a cumulative costs assessment be carried out in an effort to better understand the implications of different EU policies on the sector.
A roundtable discussion on the competitiveness of the chemical industry on 25 June served to alert senior European bodies about the current difficulties being experienced by the sector. The European chemical industry needs access to energy and raw materials at affordable prices in order to remain investment friendly, the main representative body in the sector, the CEFIC, told Tajani and member state representatives. As well as competitive energy prices at world level, chemical industry representatives also underlined the need to develop a climate policy that takes the competitiveness of the industry more into consideration, an innovation policy that acts as a driver for sustainable development, and legislation that is tailored, coherent and predictable to support investment.
Tajani proposed to conduct, with the support of the CEFIC, a cumulative cost assessment for the chemical industry, to better understand the economic implications of the EU's different policies on the sector's global competitiveness, which is now facing increasingly strong competition from China, the Middle East and the US, boosted by the schist gas revolution. Kurt Bock, Chief Executive of German group BASF and chairman of the CEFIC, explained that “the survival of the European chemical industry as we know it today, generating a trade surplus of nearly €50 billion in 2012, is at stake, largely because of regulatory issues specific to the EU, combined with excessively high energy prices for industrial consumers”. Giorgio Squinzi, Head of the German Mapei group asserted that the “European chemical companies, especially SMEs, wish to invest in Europe but need sound framework conditions, proportionate regulation, as well as regulatory stability and predictability. We need a proper understanding and proportionate use of the precautionary principle, a balance between risks and benefits, as well as good risk management, not hazard-based policies”.
The roundtable on the chemical industry is expected to be followed on 27 June by a conference in Brussels on review of the European chemical product safety mechanism (REACH). This mechanism has been proving its worth for the past five years and the Commission is proposing only very limited revision (see the results of the five-yearly report published on 5 February last, EUROPE 10779). (EH/transl.fl)