Fertilizers Europe, the European Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers, has recently published a position paper on the Fertilizer Action Plan being prepared by the European Commission. The main messages of the document are summarized below:

- Currently, mineral fertilizers account for approximately 50 percent of global food production. They are essential for replenishing the nutrients extracted from the soil with each harvest and, therefore, for sustaining agricultural productivity and food security.

- Organic and reclaimed nutrients cannot replace mineral fertilizers on their own; rather, they should be considered a complement. According to a study, with current technologies, organic fertilizers could replace up to 3 percent of the mineral nitrogen currently applied in Europe, and theoretically, with technological improvements, this could reach up to 33 percent.

- Recent geopolitical crises, from COVID-19 to the wars in Ukraine and Iran and the resulting energy tensions, have highlighted Europe's high vulnerability to external dependencies in critical sectors. The European Association warns that food security cannot be taken for granted and that maintaining competitive European fertilizer production is essential.

- Despite its strategic importance, the European fertilizer industry faces significant structural pressures, including high energy costs, carbon leakage risks, and increasing regulatory burdens. These pressures are already negatively impacting the sector's competitiveness and have contributed to the closure or reduction of capacity at several European plants.

- Therefore, Fertilizers Europe argues that the European Commission's future Fertilizer Action Plan must coherently integrate industrial, agricultural and climate policies in order to strengthen the strategic autonomy, resilience and competitiveness of the European fertilizer sector.

In this context, Fertilizers Europe presents the following priorities to the European Commission:

1. Recognizing the European fertilizer industry as a strategic sector for our strategic autonomy, food security and stability of key value chains.

2. Strengthening the competitiveness of our industry through a specific sectoral approach, technological neutrality, reduction of administrative burdens, incentives for investment and protection of the competitiveness of the entire agri-food chain.

3. Reducing energy costs in Europe, especially natural gas and electricity, as they are considered a structural disadvantage compared to other competing regions.

4. Addressing carbon leakage in a coherent manner, ensuring consistency between the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and the CBAM, maintaining adequate protection for European industry and developing a real solution for exports.

5. To ensure fair competitive conditions against imports, resorting where necessary to trade defense instruments against dumping, unfair subsidies and circumvention practices.

6. Boost demand for circular, renewable and low-carbon fertilizers through incentives, regulatory support, certification and labelling at European scale, as well as measures that facilitate their application by farmers.

7. Meeting long-term priorities to move towards a low-carbon economy, favoring a regulatory and investment framework that allows for the development of decarbonized European production without jeopardizing industrial viability.

8. Develop a comprehensive set of tools for farmers that promotes nutrient use efficiency (NUE), including more efficient fertilizers, precision agriculture, biostimulants, inhibitors, and other technical solutions that allow them to produce more with less.


All these points are developed in greater detail in the Fertilizers Europe position paper: https://www.fertilizerseurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Fertilizer-Action-Plan-Fertilizers-Europes-Position-Paper.pdf