European Commission Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné convened the first General Assembly of the Critical Chemicals Alliance at Chemelot Chemical Park in the Netherlands on Tuesday 13 January, the Commission said in a press release.
This General Assembly brings together members from industry, Member States, regional authorities and civil society, and launched the Alliance, which was created on 8 July (see EUROPE 13740/8, 13676/11).
“The Alliance aims to address global trade challenges, including unfair competition and supply chain dependencies, while promoting incentives to develop lead markets for clean chemical products”, explains the Commission.
Among other things, the Alliance will have to identify the molecules considered critical and essential for the EU economy, and the production sites involved. The next step will be to map this production as well as value chains in order to detect choke points at an early stage. The Alliance should also serve to coordinate investment by directing national and EU funding towards flagship projects.
“In just two years, we have lost more than twenty major chemical sites across Europe”, lamented the vice-president at the Alliance meeting.
It will have to provide both clarity and “fairness” by monitoring market distortions more closely, but also serve “transformation” by channelling funding and reforms towards industrial modernisation or by stimulating demand and lead markets that reward low-carbon or circular products. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)