Glass Alliance Europe Urges EU to Help Glass Industry Weather Energy Crisis

Glass Alliance Europe (GAE) has called on the European Union (EU) and associated nations to support the glass industry as it faces an energy crisis that the GAE calls “a major threat to the glass industry and its value chains.”

According to the GAE, risks of energy shortages and increasing energy costs have placed the European glass industry in dire need of support. As a result, the GAE has called for urgent and robust EU support measures.

These measures include:

• Prioritizing the supply of energy to continuous production processes, such as the glass industry, and thus avoiding the complete loss of industrial assets.
• Designing and introducing urgent and decisive measures to curb energy costs for both natural gas and electricity.
• Facilitating fuel switching by allowing for greater flexibility under the local implementation of the Industrial Emissions Directive rules to efficiently amend operational permits when it comes to re-introducing heavy fuel oil for glass melting.
• Supporting greater electrification of the glass industry by revising the guidelines for certain aid and making sure all glass sectors become eligible for compensation.
• Offering immediate relief on taxes and surcharges for electricity and gas to the European glass industry, as well as preserving the exemption for mineralogical processes under the Energy Taxation Directive.
• Engaging the reform meant to decouple electricity from gas prices and reforming the energy market design.
• Continuing the trade defense measures on subsidized and dumped imports and considering the rapid introduction of additional measures when new flows emerge. Because of the high energy prices in Europe, import volumes from historical importing countries are increasing and new trade flows are emerging. These flows, if left unaddressed, could pose a serious threat to European production.