The latest CEPE Press Release

Last week, CEPE organised a roundtable in the European Parliament. Hosted by the honourable member of the European Parliament Marie-Pierre VEDRENNE, and in the presence of the European Commission, as well as many representatives of various EU member states, our industry shared its experience and views on the current regulatory environment, as well as its shortcomings.  Our representatives, Anita Drewes (AkzoNobel), Toon Bossuyt (Boss Paints) and Nassir Goulamaly put forward the demands hereunder on what the EU decision makers could do to meet the priority of Ms von der Leyen to rebuild the EU’s economic competitiveness. In other words, what can the EU do to restore a level-playing field for EU businesses?   

Observations:

Ø  Regulatory pressure alongside rising energy prices, anti-dumping measures, etc. are making European products less competitive both for export and within the EU. There is a worrying trend, especially amongst SMEs, of having more staff dedicated to compliance than to R&D.

Demands of the paints, printing inks and artists’ colours industry, a downstream user of chemicals and intermediary between chemical manufacturers and end users:

Ø  Establish a level-playing field

Ø  A truly unified European market: The Single Market should be real and more than in name only. For this, legislation should be harmonised across member states to eliminate unnecessary barriers and to avoid market fragmentations and gold-plating (e.g. additional labelling requirements in some EU member states).

Ø  EU and non-EU products to be put on the same footing: Enforce stricter border controls to prevent non-compliant products from entering the EU and undercutting European manufacturers.

Ø  Legislation to meet the needs of the industry

Ø Understand the value chain: A one-size-fits-all regulatory approach does not work. We need legislation that considers the needs of the different players in the value chain. Before introducing new regulations, policymakers must conduct thorough impact assessments to ensure they do not disproportionately burden downstream users, such as the coatings industry. Deadlines and transition periods must also be adapted to the economic operators. For example, reformulating a single paint product due to the restriction of one substance (such as talc) can take months, consuming significant R&D resources. If multiple substances are reclassified at once, the entire industry faces years of reformulation work, delaying innovation and burdening SMEs disproportionately.

Ø  EU to fix only what is broken: The EU should work towards the full implementation of existing chemical legislation such as REACH and its measures, including enforcement, before revising and introducing new concepts such as those set out in the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability such as the Generic Risk Assessment.

Ø Chemical legislation to be based on scientific evidence:  Policy making should be based on the risk management approach and move away from hazard-based decision-making that unnecessarily restricts substances essential to industrial applications.