INEOS’ €4 billion Project ONE ethane cracker in Antwerp is approaching the final stages of construction, but the project continues to illustrate the legal and business uncertainties facing major chemical investments in Europe.
Designed to produce around 1.45 million tonnes of ethylene annually, Project ONE represents one of the largest investments in the European chemical industry in decades. INEOS now expects mechanical completion around summer 2027, with start-up scheduled for the second half of the year.
Yet while construction advances, legal uncertainty remains. ClientEarth and a coalition of 14 environmental organisations, including Greenpeace Belgium, Bond Beter Leefmilieu and WWF Belgium, have challenged the environmental permits granted to the project. Their objections concern issues including greenhouse-gas emissions, nitrogen deposition and impacts on protected nature.
Project ONE has already experienced significant permitting disruption. In 2023, a Flemish court annulled an earlier permit following a challenge by the Dutch provinces of Zeeland and Noord-Brabant over potential nitrogen impacts across the Belgian-Dutch border. A new permit was subsequently granted, allowing construction to continue, but this too has faced legal challenges.
The situation raises a broader question for Europe’s chemical industry. Companies are being encouraged to invest in modern, more energy-efficient production assets while simultaneously facing increasingly complex permitting procedures and the possibility of prolonged litigation after permits have been granted.
For investors considering multibillion-euro industrial projects, regulatory ambition is one thing; regulatory predictability is another. Project ONE demonstrates how the distinction between the two is becoming increasingly important for the future competitiveness of European chemicals.
Personal Remarks
One day, a few years from now, Europeans may ask themselves: how did one of the world’s most advanced industrial regions lose so much of its industrial base?
And does anyone remember the controversy surrounding European Commission funding for environmental NGOs involved in advocating policies aligned with the EU’s Green Deal?
In my view, Europe is creating a system in which companies are expected to invest billions, obtain the necessary permits and build state-of-the-art industrial assets, only to face years of legal uncertainty and repeated challenges.
Whatever the intentions behind these policies and legal actions, the consequences for European industry deserve much greater scrutiny. At some point, environmental ambition without industrial realism risks becoming a form of self-inflicted industrial sabotage.
Source
Man United’s owner had a plan to revive the EU chemical sector. Then the lawsuits started.