GfE: how to boost recovery in Europe’s flat glass sector

The economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in Europe are already evident although some may completely reveal in a few months. It is clear that several industrial sectors such as the flat glass industry will be hit hard and weakened by this crisis. While we witness a timid restarting of the economy, the level of activity in flat glass remains low, which creates a serious risk of profound disruptions to the flat glass ecosystem.

Since the flat glass industry delivers products which are indispensable to achieve a climate-neutral Europe by 2020, concrete measures to support the recovery of the sector are urgently needed to safeguard the industry and the EU’s ability to decarbonise its EU building stock and to remain leaders in environmentally friendly modes of transport and vehicles.

Against this background, Glass for Europe (GfE) calls for recovery programmes at EU and national levels to boost recovery in the flat glass sector in order to maximise economic benefits and support the transition towards a climate-neutral and circular Europe. Next to the injection of liquidities necessary to preserve the millions of SMEs heavily affected in the flat glass industry, demand-side measures to support building renovation and window/glazing retrofit are paramount. Glass for Europe also looks more longer-term and measures designed today could support the sector’s decarbonisation efforts.