November 28, 2025 15:16
The European Commission has unveiled a revised version of its Strategy for a competitive and sustainable bioeconomy, aiming to strengthen sectors such as green chemistry and bioplastics.
The plan seeks to stimulate innovation and investment in biobased products to progressively replace fossil-based counterparts, fostering job creation and enhancing industrial resilience.
In 2023, the bioeconomy generated an estimated value of €2.7 trillion and employed more than 17 million people across the European Union.
The strategy aims to remove barriers to the industrialization of biobased technologies by encouraging public and private demand, simplifying the regulatory framework, and promoting the Bio-based Europe Alliance initiative, which targets up to €10 billion in joint procurement by 2030.
However, reactions within the industry have been mixed. Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, responded with a degree of skepticism, noting the lack of binding legislative instruments and a roadmap to strengthen Europe’s industrial supply chain.
“Strategy alone is not enough. We need action and implementation. That means: a legal framework for the industrial bioeconomy to create a single market for bio-based products in Europe,” said Director General Marco Mensink (pictured). “Without demand, there is no business case, and we need that business case now.”
By contrast, European Bioplastics welcomed the strategy as “a decisive step towards the structural integration of bio-based plastics.” The association particularly values the link to the new Packaging Regulation(PPWR) and the EU’s commitment to adopt specific criteria and targets for biobased materials by 2027.
“For the first time,” stated EUBP Secretary General Lorenza Romanese (pictured), “the Bioeconomy Strategy and the Commissioner’s call for scale-up converge on a simple truth: Europe will not lead the green transition through innovation alone, but through the capacity to industrialise it — and the genuine commitment towards legally binding biobased plastics targets is the moment where Europe stops admiring its potential and starts activating it.”
The bioplastics value chain association calls on the Commission to swiftly operationalize the strategy’s measures in product, packaging, waste, environment, and climate policy areas. “It is essential that biobased content, biodegradability, compostability, and design for circularity are consistently recognized—alongside reuse and recycling—to avoid conflicting signals across EU policies.”
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