EU Bioeconomy Strategy Aims to Scale Bio-Based Innovation and Tackle Regulatory Gaps

Professionals across chemical, manufacturing and agricultural sectors should closely monitor the framework, which seeks to strengthen industrial biomanufacturing, create new market incentives and ensure long-term biomass supply. The strategy supports circularity, competitiveness and climate goals while promising tangible support for SMEs and scale-ups across Europe.

Key Policy Focus: Removing Regulatory Barriers

Stakeholders across industry, academia and NGOs consistently cited regulatory fragmentation as a major hurdle to bio-based innovation. In response, the Commission proposes several simplification measures:

• Introduction of regulatory sandboxes for pilot projects
• A new EU Bioeconomy Regulators and Innovators’ Forum to fast-track authorisations
• Harmonised sustainability criteria and traceability systems
• Updated Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) rules to better reflect the benefits of bio-based alternatives

These changes are expected to particularly benefit product groups such as bio-based plastics, biochemicals, textiles and biopesticides—each of which faces specific approval, classification or sustainability labelling challenges today.

Financing Innovation: Addressing the Valleys of Death

Another key pillar of the strategy is bridging funding gaps for early-stage and scale-up phases of bioeconomy innovations. The Commission proposes:

• Expanded support through the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) and Horizon Europe
• A dedicated Bioeconomy Investment Deployment Group to align national, EU and private financing efforts
• Greater access to infrastructure and demonstration facilities for SMEs

With EU bioeconomy sectors employing 17.1 million people and generating up to €2.7 trillion in value added, targeted investment mechanisms are seen as vital to realising this sector’s full potential.

Market Creation and Biomass Security

The Commission also aims to create lead markets for bio-based products by:

• Launching a Bio-Based Europe Alliance, targeting €10 billion in private procurement by 2030
• Strengthening public procurement rules for bio-based content
• Supporting cascading use of biomass and reducing over-reliance on primary resources

Long-term resilience will depend on sustainably sourced biomass, where the strategy proposes harmonised certification, circularity incentives and monitoring systems for supply and biodiversity impacts.