Meeting in Brussels on Thursday 28 May, the EU27 ministers and their representatives responsible for Competitiveness examined the situation of the European chemical industry and, in particular, possible solutions to help it overcome the enormous shock linked to energy costs.
“The chemical industry is in great difficulty; it is probably the sector most affected by the problem of overcapacity and the energy-related competitiveness crisis”, acknowledged the Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné.
And “if we want to keep a chemical sector in Europe, we need solutions”, he added, referring in particular to the forthcoming revision of the Emissions Trading System (ETS). Among the measures on the table is the continuation of certain free allocation of allowances, the official explained, which could already help support the sector.
At an informal lunch with the ministers, a representative of CEFIC came to outline the sector’s difficulties. The previous day, a spokesperson for CEFIC had set out the key elements of its message (see EUROPE 13875/7), stressing, among other things, the need to ease the burden of energy costs on industry and expressing concern about the need to increase the share of ETS revenues paid back to industry for decarbonisation, or about the proposal for thermal compensation under the EU Emissions Trading System.
Questioned at a press conference, Executive Vice-President Séjourné also did not rule out the possibility that chemicals could be included within the scope of the Industrial Accelerator Act, which currently covers only industries such as cement and steel.
This informal debate on the chemical industry fed into a broader public debate on the planned reform of the Emissions Trading System and on the requests made in recent days by Greece, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, which called for a “realistic benchmark adjustment” of the calculations of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) (see EUROPE 13874/16).
The initiative was also backed by Slovakia and Bulgaria, but prompted reservations from countries such as Sweden, which are committed to the integrity of the ETS.
This debate also gave countries such as France an opportunity to criticise the Commission’s recent proposals on the benchmark values used to calculate the number of free emission allowances (see EUROPE 13866/6).
In this context, French minister Sébastien Martin, who had prepared a contribution with his Spanish counterpart, said he was disappointed by these new benchmark definitions, warning of fresh “relocation risks” for industry.
“I do not see how the chemical industry, for example, can absorb what amounts to a new €3 billion tax.” While affirming his support for the ETS, he called on the European Commission, before the Council of the EU votes on these new values, to explain the methodology used, to lower the “fallback benchmarks” and to ensure that these changes are retroactive from 1 January 2026.
Earlier in the morning, Czech minister Karel Havlíček had welcomed the discussion and “the need to give greater support to energy-intensive industries, notably by allocating them a larger number of emission allowances. I am talking about industries such as glass, steel, chemicals, cement, lime, foundries, etc., an extremely important sector for us”.
What is essential is “that before today’s meeting, six countries had already joined us. Today, Hungary joined us, whereas it had not had time to do so in recent days. Italy supports us”, he added. And, “in principle, we can say that, in this enlarged coalition, we can include France and, surprisingly, Spain”.
A “kind of coalition of ten countries is emerging. These countries are fully aware in Europe of the seriousness of the situation and Europe is finally beginning to wake up”, he further insisted. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)