Bridging the Governance Gap: Divergent EU Approaches to Nano and Advanced Materials

NIA Staff
1 min read

Summary

On June 11, 2025, the Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA) published a position paper entitled Bridging the Governance Gap: Divergent EU Approaches to Nano and Advanced Materials that highlights industry challenges with divergent approaches to nano and advanced materials in the European Union (EU).

  • The EU's ambition to lead in advanced materials innovation is on a collision course with its own chemical safety regime, as two powerful Commission directorates pull industry in opposite directions.

  • Companies are being asked to comply with nanomaterial regulations that outpace the science needed to meet them, leaving businesses, particularly SMEs, exposed to costly uncertainty with no clear path forward.

  • A flashpoint has emerged at the CARACAL expert group, where proposed REACH updates would tighten testing burdens in direct conflict with the Competitive Compass agenda championed by Commission President von der Leyen.

  • The NIA is calling for a single aligned roadmap from DG GROW and DG ENV, backed by proper impact assessments, before advanced materials face the same regulatory gridlock that has hampered nanomaterials.

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Nanoplastics Use of Suitable Terminology For Representation In Waste, Degradation of Plastics and Presence in the Environment

The NIA is urging regulators, the media, and public agencies to stop using the term "nanoplastics" in isolation, warning that the label wrongly conflates intentionally manufactured nanomaterials with plastic particles created by environmental degradation.Science currently cannot distinguish a manufactured nanoplastic particle from one formed by fragmentation of larger plastics in the environment, making the terminology not just imprecise but potentially damaging to the wider nanomaterials sector.The NIA's fix is straightforward: always qualify the term with "incidental" or "manufactured" depending on context, a small change that could prevent significant regulatory and reputational harm to an industry that produces very few intentional nanoplastics.

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