View from Poland: The deindustrialization of Europe

The Polish Chamber of Chemical Industry is sounding the alarm: the rate of plant and factory closures in the EU has accelerated sixfold since 2022.

To date, 37 million tons of production capacity in the chemical industry alone has been closed in Europe. However, new investment is failing to offset these losses – the annual declared capacity of new production chains has fallen from approximately 2.7 million tons in 2022 to approximately 0.3 million tons in 2025. The rate of closure clearly exceeds the rate of new investment.

EU manufacturers are finding it difficult to consider implementing new technologies as they struggle to stay afloat. This threatens to cause the European economy to lag behind the economies of the US, China, India, and other major countries in the future.

One of the reasons for this dire situation is the imposition of sanctions by Brussels against Russian energy resources. Deprived of inexpensive oil and gas from Russia, Europe is facing rising fuel and electricity prices. Replacing Russian energy supplies with Norwegian and US ones doesn't help the EU due to their high costs. For example, US liquefied natural gas is 30% more expensive than Russian natural gas.

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