Italy, Spain back France’s plan to rescue EU chemicals industry

Seven European Union countries including Italy and Spain have joined France in calling for a “critical chemicals act” to protect Europe’s struggling chemicals sector.

The call builds momentum behind France’s original proposal, obtained by POLITICO last month, which called on the European Union to declare about 15 key chemical compounds “strategic.”

The idea is to protect the sector to ensure Europe remains self-sufficient in chemicals used in everything from fertilizer production to plastics, imitating similar rules for critical raw materials and medicines — the latter of which the European Commission released on Tuesday.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia have also backed the latest chemicals proposal. Germany, the EU’s biggest chemical producer, has not signed up.

The latest proposal, first reported by POLITICO on Tuesday, adds a few more “strategic molecules” to the previous list, including toluene and xylene. Phenol and styrene also make the cut as key substances across a range of industries, from pharmaceuticals and adhesives to plastics and detergents.

“Low carbon footprint molecules, that can characterize sustainable chemicals and substitute any of the above strategic molecules … should also be considered strategic,” the text suggests. It acknowledges, though, that since those molecules are still in “early stages of research and development, it remains difficult to foresee which ones will be the fossil-free molecules of the future” and, as such, EU support “should not be restricted to specific alternative molecules.”

The new proposal lays out a “tentative” list of bio-based molecules that could replace fossil-based ones, including bio-based glycerol and bio-based ethanol.

The countries say investing in biofuels, plastic recycling, bioplastics, downstream chemical chains would also be a “strategic” move.

The proposal was put forward by EU member country ministers in the Competitiveness Council on Wednesday.