EFF calls for a work­able IED to safe­guard European foundries

The European Foundry Fed­er­a­tion (EFF) has offi­cially sub­mit­ted its pos­i­tion paper and amend­ments on the Indus­trial Emis­sions Dir­ect­ive (IED) sim­pli­fic­a­tion (Omni­bus VIII) to the European Parliament’s ENVI Com­mit­tee. With the new IED rules hav­ing entered into force on 1 July 2026, the sec­tor is call­ing for urgent, real­istic adjust­ments to pro­tect European jobs and com­pet­it­ive­ness.

Between 2019 and 2024, the European foundry sec­tor suffered a 25% drop in pro­duc­tion and a 32% decline in employ­ment. While our industry remains fully com­mit­ted to its envir­on­mental goals, the cur­rent IED imple­ment­a­tion timelines and admin­is­trat­ive demands pose a severe threat to our sur­vival. We are not ask­ing to lower envir­on­mental ambi­tions, but to ensure rules are feas­ible so that we can con­tinue to pro­duce cleanly in Europe rather than push­ing pro­duc­tion abroad.

Our pos­i­tion paper delivered to European legis­lat­ors out­lines cru­cial recom­mend­a­tions to make the IED frame­work work­able, focus­ing on:

• Real­istic imple­ment­a­tion timelines and a tem­por­ary “stop-the-clock”.

• Per­mit­ting focused strictly on rel­ev­ant substances.

• Pro­por­tion­ate admin­is­trat­ive require­ments.

Click here to down­load the full EFF Pos­i­tion Paper & Amend­ments Package