Third Policy Bulletin

Third Policy Bulletin

febrero 19, 2026 paguado Comments Off

BRILIAN’s Third Bioeconomy Policy Paper, produced by the European Bioeconomy Bureau (EBB), consolidates the most relevant EU policy and regulatory developments from 2025 and the key signals for 2026 that will shape how the bioeconomy scales across Europe.

The macro picture: budget pressure and the post 2027 CAP debate

The paper frames 2025 as a year of intensified institutional and budgetary pressure, feeding directly into discussions on the next Multiannual Financial Framework and, crucially, the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2027. It underlines the historic budgetary weight of the CAP and why its redesign is strategically decisive for rural competitiveness.

The cross cutting theme: regulatory simplification

A central message is the 2025 push for simplification to reduce administrative burden, particularly for SMEs, structured through “Omnibus” packages. The paper highlights initiatives such as Omnibus VIII (Environment) and the “one substance, one assessment” approach to streamline chemical risk assessments, alongside adjustments affecting CBAM and corporate sustainability and due diligence reporting (scope and timing).

The EU Bioeconomy Strategy (adopted November 2025)

The Commission’s updated strategy is summarised around three priorities:

Scaling up sustainable bio based industries
Deploying local and regional bioeconomies
Ensuring biological resources are used within ecological limits

The paper points to measures supporting scale up (including biorefineries), partnerships and investment instruments, and a Strategic Deployment Agenda anchored in living labs and pilots.

It also flags priority “lead markets” for replacing fossil based alternatives, including bio plastics and bio polymers, bio based textiles, bio based chemicals and advanced fermentation products, bio fertilisers and bio pesticides, construction materials and biomass based composites, and approaches linked to biogenic carbon.

The policy levers dashboard (2025 to 2030): what stakeholders should track

The paper consolidates a set of initiatives that are expected to drive market conditions and implementation:

Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA): faster permitting, low carbon product criteria, green public procurement and cluster support, with identified risks such as permitting bottlenecks and weak demand signals.
ESPR and the Digital Product Passport (DPP): product requirements and traceability, with data complexity and SME cost implications.
Circular Economy Act: potential for systemic targets and the creation of lead markets.
CBE JU: funding demonstrators and flagships to de risk scale up investments.
IPCEI: mobilisation of large scale public and private investment in strategic value chains.

Key risks (2025 to 2030)

The paper highlights five high relevance risks for deployment:

Regulatory fragmentation
Data and verification bottlenecks (DPP, LCA)
Financing versus investor appetite gap
Uneven implementation across Member States
Technology maturity and scale up challenges

Plastics: a circularity pilot and linked regulatory files

The paper captures the Commission’s December 2025 communication on a pilot to boost plastics circularity, including “end of waste” criteria, mass balance rules to provide clarity for chemical recycling, reinforcement of the Circular Plastics Alliance, import export compliance measures (with milestones from 2026), and support for investment and innovation.

It also summarises two closely related frameworks:

Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD): public consultation to March 2026 and an evaluation planned for 2027.
Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR): in force since February 2025, setting recyclability by design and recycled content milestones, with a review in 2028 (potentially including bio based criteria) and strong linkages to ESPR and DPP for traceability.

Water, soils and deforestation: enabling conditions for a resilient bioeconomy

The paper emphasises several 2025 files that function as enabling conditions:

Water resilience, with a strategy focusing on implementation of existing legislation and “water smart” practices and infrastructure.
The Soil Monitoring Directive: in force since December 2025, with transposition by December 2028; the paper highlights its value for securing sustainable biomass supply and reducing uncertainty for investment decisions.
A postponement of application timelines for the EU Deforestation Regulation to December 2026, with extended timelines for micro and small companies.

In a policy landscape where rules, instruments and priorities are being recalibrated, this policy paper acts as a navigational framework: it connects strategy, regulation and market levers, while positioning BRILIAN’s cooperative pilots as a source of real world evidence to accelerate scale up decisions in Europe’s rural bioeconomy.

To explore the topic in more depth