Chemicals

Chemical production in the EU accounts for about 13.5% of total chemical production all over the world. With around 7.5% of EU manufacturing by turnover, the chemicals industry is one the largest manufacturing sectors in Europe.

Being at the very base of many other industries - and having an impact on safety, health, and environment, it is a highly regulated sector. Within Europe, chemicals are predominantly regulated through comprehensive legislations, among which the most relevant are Regulation on 'Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals' (REACH) and Regulation on 'Classification, Labelling and Packaging of chemical substances' (CLP).

REACH (EC 1907/2006) aims at improving the protection of human health and environment, as well as enhancing innovation and competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry. Currently, more than 25.000 substances have been submitted to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) under REACH. Other groups of chemicals such as fertilisers, explosives, biocides, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics are addressed by specific legislations.

The EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability - published in 2020 - increases the efforts towards the protection of the citizens and the environment, while boosting innovation for safe and sustainable chemicals.

European Standards in the chemicals sector have three main objectives

• supporting the EU Circular Economy and the Green Deal, creating a market for secondary raw materials without endangering human health and environment due to the presence of hazardous chemicals;
• aiding the replacement of non-sustainable chemicals with the use of sustainable ones, by identifying gaps and proposing future standardization activities;
• harnessing developments in Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) identified by the EU - such as nanotechnologies - to support EU’s industrial policy.