Solvay

Sovereignty is manufactured on the ground. So why do we keep making it harder to do so in Europe? I am a committed European. Which is precisely why I find myself asking this increasingly uncomfortable question. Europe wants EV sovereignty. Europe wants AI sovereignty. Europe wants clean energy sovereignty. Europe wants defense sovereignty. All of those ambitions depend on something very concrete: the ability to manufacture strategic materials in Europe. Not to import them. Not to process them elsewhere. To make them here. EV batteries need soda ash. Tires need silica. Semiconductors need ultra-pure hydrogen peroxide. Wind turbines and electric vehicles rely on rare earths. Air pollution control relies on sodium bicarbonate. Everything Europe wants to become is made of something essential. But ten years from now, I wonder: where will it be made? Having lived through the industrial decline that affected parts of Europe in the 1990s and 2000s, I have seen what happens when industrial capabilities are allowed to erode. Once an industrial ecosystem disappears, bringing it back is extraordinarily difficult. Today, I worry that we underestimate how quickly capabilities can be lost. Europe has already lost around 10% of its chemical production capacity since 2022. Investment in the sector has fallen sharply, by 80% last year in fact. Across industry, projects are being reassessed as companies confront higher energy costs, infrastructure bottlenecks, growing uncertainty and uneven conditions. Europe already knows what industry needs to succeed: affordable low-carbon energy, infrastructure, faster funding and permitting, and predictable regulation. These are policy choices. And they can be fixed. For years, Europe has asked industry to transform. Industry responded, invested billions, reducing emissions and developing new technologies. At Solvay, we are among them. But when the conditions are not there, investment goes elsewhere. And when investment moves, production follows. Then jobs follow, then emissions follow, then dependency follows. That would be a paradox at a time when Europe is rightly placing strategic autonomy and competitiveness at the center of its agenda. Sovereignty is manufactured on the ground. It depends on industrial sites, chemical plants and supply chains that have taken decades to build and that Europe cannot afford to lose. Europe already has what it needs: world-class companies, industrial know-how and the willingness to invest. The question facing Europe today is whether it will create the conditions to keep that transformation happening here. The faster we remove the barriers to investment, competitiveness and industrial transformation, the stronger Europe's sovereignty will be. Will we still have enough industry left to do it? Yes, that concerns me. But more importantly, it motivates me to keep pushing for the conditions that allow industry to invest, transform and remain in Europe.

Proud to be Essential. Proud of our Financial Strength.

Proud to be Essential. Proud of our Financial Strength.

Pas besoin d'être Solvay pour faire de la chimie essentielle. Quoique. Solvay. Essential For Generations

Pas besoin d'être Solvay pour faire de la chimie essentielle. Quoique. Solvay. Essential For Generations

Decarbonizing heavy industry takes more than ambition. At Solvay, it means real investment, measurable emissions cuts, and one of the industry's most extensive roadmaps.