Is a lifeline here? EU Chemical Industry Action Plan released

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Currently, Europe’s chemical industry is at a crossroads, facing multiple challenges such as plant closures, declining market shares, and reduced investment. Faced with the severe situation, the European Commission will introduce a series of measures to boost the competitiveness of Europe’s chemical industry. 　　On July 8, the European Commission announced a Chemical Industry Action Plan aimed at addressing the high energy costs, global competition, and weak demand faced by the chemical industry, while promoting investment in innovation and sustainability. 　　The goal of this plan is to strengthen the competitiveness of the EU’s chemical industry and promote its modernization. The European Commission stated in a statement that the action plan is accompanied by a Simplified Comprehensive Chemicals Act aimed at streamlining the EU’s legislation on key chemicals, as well as a proposal to enhance the governance and financial sustainability of the European Chemicals Agency. 　　The European Commission plans to establish a Critical Chemicals Alliance with member states and stakeholders to address the risk of capacity closures in the chemical industry. The alliance will identify key production sites that require policy support and address trade issues such as supply chain dependencies. 　　In addition, the European Commission will adopt trade defense measures and expand oversight of chemical imports through the existing import monitoring working group. 　　As part of the action plan, another measure proposed by the European Commission is to implement the Affordable Energy Action Plan to help reduce high costs of energy and raw materials. This plan will extend the compensation for indirect costs under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to more chemicals, and it will support the development of low-carbon hydrogen in order to create a hydrogen economy. 　　The action plan encourages the use of clean carbon sources, such as carbon capture, biomass, and waste, while supporting the development of renewable energy. 　　The action plan also emphasizes the introduction of financial incentives and tax measures to boost demand for clean chemicals, and reiterates the European Commission’s commitment to reducing emissions of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). 　　The European Commission stated that, as part of the efforts to continuously enhance the competitiveness of the EU, the Simplified Chemicals Package aims to reduce the compliance costs and administrative burden on the chemical industry, while ensuring strong protection for human health and the environment. The bill includes simplifying the rules for labeling hazardous chemicals ； Clarifying EU cosmetics regulations ； Simplify the registration of EU fertilizer products by aligning information requirements with the regulatory rules of the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. The European Commission estimates that these measures will save the chemical industry at least 363 million euros per year. 　　In a statement regarding the new action plan released by the European Commission, the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) said that it represents an important step toward enhancing the competitiveness and resilience of the EU’s chemical industry. The top priority is to implement it swiftly and strengthen **coordination across the entire EU to turn this plan into reality. The German Chemical Industry Association stated that the action plan marks a \"**turning point**, containing specific measures to boost Europe’s chemical industry. The plan to repeal the regulations on package font size is a typical example; such regulations would result in additional costs of hundreds of millions of euros. It is reported that the chemical industry is the fourth-largest manufacturing sector in the EU, with 29,000 companies, providing 1.2 million direct jobs and supporting indirect employment for 19 million people in the supply chain.