Euro Chlor federation celebrates 20th anniversary
Euro Chlor, representing the European Chlor-Alkali industry, celebrated in Brussels its 20th anniversary at the occasion of its Annual General Meeting. The association was founded in 1989, in order to provide adequate response to the rising public concern about chlorine chemistry. It would turn out to be an important actor in the socio-political context determining the functioning of the chlor-alkali industry.
In the mid-1980s, the chlorine industry was under attack by a strong anti-chlorine movement led by environmentalist groups in Europe and the USA. Their slogans “Stop chlorine” and “Chlorine kills” were taken seriously by authority bodies in Europe who initiated steps to prohibit or substitute “unnecessary” organochlorines.
The European chlorine industry took these threats very seriously which led to the creation of a strong Euro Chlor with a vision and with the means to become the authoritative voice of the chlorine industry in Europe. In the early years of Euro Chlor’s existence, interest from European and national policy making bodies, scientific groups, press and environmental NGO’s in chlorine chemistry industry issues grew rapidly. Euro Chlor took this as a real opportunity for effective dialogue.
Executive Director Alistair steel comments the Euro Chlor strategy: “We at the secretariat from the very beginning set out to provide balanced, science based information for use in active dialogue with key influencers. The term Critical Success Factor was not in common usage in those days but this was ours!. We had to achieve high levels of credibility and acceptance amongst politicians, scientists and the media.”
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