In Brussels, Belgium from 2nd to 4th December 2024, the European ceramic industry gathered for the 2024 European Ceramic Days (ECD). This year marked a special milestone as the 30th European Parliament Ceramics Forum (EPCF) brought together policymakers and industry leaders to address some of the most pressing issues facing the ceramic sector and Europe as a whole.
The EPCF plenary hosted on 3rd December by EPCF Chair MEP Elisabetta Gualmini featured members of the European Parliament, EU and member states’ officials as well industry executives from a wide range of supply chains. The discussions focused on critical topics such as the Clean Industrial Deal, EU trade, global competitiveness, and the future of affordable and sustainable housing.
European ceramics will be essential not only to maintain the EU’s autonomy in its efforts to decarbonise the building stock and tackle the housing crisis, but also as enabling technologies for numerous strategic sectors. Despite its efforts to decarbonise its processes, ‘the ceramic industry’s competitiveness is heavily undermined by high energy prices and rising carbon costs without having access to decarbonised energy sources and grids within the time framework imposed by EU regulations such as the EU ETS,’ stated Alain Delcourt, Cerame-Unie’s President.
Against the background of the Letta and Draghi reports, the Commission’s political guidelines and the Budapest declaration of 8th November on the New European Competitiveness Deal, the European ceramic industry calls for a Clean Industrial Deal ‘transition dialogue on heterogeneous energy intensive industries’. Such dedicated dialogue is requested to provide tailor-made support for EU ceramics, a very heterogenous energy-intensive sector mainly composed of small and medium sized as well as multi-site companies often located in remote areas, but also structured in strong ceramic clusters in countries such as Italy and Spain.
Incoming Cerame-Unie President Heimo Scheuch concluded by stressing that ‘Implementing an effective and comprehensive Clean Industrial Deal which leaves no sector aside should be the main task of the new European Commission.’
