Romania’s and Europe’s chemical industry is in deep crisis and facing critical decisions: without rapid, targeted public intervention, its remaining value chains risk irreparable disruption or loss. Despite record exports and a positive trade balance, Europe is increasingly reliant on imports from the US and China, having lost more than half its global market share in two decades. Romania mirrors this trend, while also exhibiting a negative overall trade balance. These developments raise significant concerns about the competitiveness of Europe’s chemical industry and the EU’s strategic autonomy.
Decarbonisation policies, while not a key driver of current struggles, still risk placing pressure on the industry, so a more realistic approach requires flexibility in timelines to support financing and implementation of the transition. This direction also addresses one of the sector’s core vulnerabilities: exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices, making the shift to clean solutions as much about future-proofing and lowering long-term energy costs as about emissions. In Romania, the Neptun Deep gas project may ease prices but won’t guarantee competitiveness. Instead, the future of its industry depends on gradual transition, clear prioritisation, and realism about how fast costs and technologies can actually mature. With energy prices likely to stay elevated, electrification offers more promise than fossil fuels, but efficiency, circularity, and chemical recycling will be equally critical to competitiveness and to reducing dependence on fossil-based feedstocks.
Author’s Insights:
“Romania should maintain critical chemical production by developing strategic chemical parks that enable large-scale modernisation of primary-chemical facilities. It should also strengthen industrial resilience through national reskilling programmes in electrification, hydrogen and CO₂ infrastructure, and by creating bio-based innovation clusters linking university R&D with pilot projects and targeted tax incentives.
Deployment of electrification technologies should be accelerated through targeted CAPEX incentives for industrial upgrades and fast-tracked permitting for grid and electrical infrastructure expansions, alongside efforts to secure reliable, affordable energy through PPAs with state-backed guarantees and a modernised national electricity grid. Developing a comprehensive bioeconomy strategy could expand Romania competitive advantage in bioplastics, advanced transportation fuels, and bio-based chemical value chains. Lastly, it is crucial that the country simplifies and streamlines the regulatory framework in line with the Omnibus proposal on chemicals, while supporting the creation of clear, EU-wide labels for green and low-carbon chemicals aligned with long-term climate goals.”
– Christopher Lepădatu
For or further details and media inquiries, please contact Sabina Strîmbovschi: sabina.strimbovschi@epg-thinktank.org
The authors would like to thank the following for their valuable input and review of this study: Radu Cîrlingeanu, Constantin Postoiu, and Alexandru Ciocan.