The European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN) has the intention to create a greater awareness for the regional dimension with those involved in the shaping of policies in Europe.
The chemical industry is one of the key European industrial sectors. About one in three of all industrial employees in Europe are working in this sector; one tenth of the entire industrial turnover is generated by chemical firms. These activities are embedded in the regions. The European chemical regions may differ in terms of size and other characteristics, but they all have to cope with a large variety of challenges to safeguard their competitiveness, such as the impacts of globalization, economic transformation, environmental issues, as well as the requirements of the EU chemicals policy.
The European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN) was originally started as an INTERREG IIIc project in 2004 with 13 member regions from 7 different European countries. The idea was to bring chemical regions from all over Europe together in order to better tackle the special challenges for these regions by exchanging information, exploring solutions for common problems and by speaking with a single voice.
