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ECOLAB

ECL

Ecolab is a global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions serving food, healthcare, hospitality, and industrial markets.

Lobbying Activity

Ecolab Urges EU to Include Resins in Materials Act

13 Jan 2026
Topic — The consultation aims to strengthen EU capacities and autonomy in advanced materials.
Message — Ecolab requests that resins be included in the EU definition. They also call for accelerated regulatory pathways and support for local production.12
Why — Inclusion would provide Ecolab with regulatory incentives and funding for resin innovation.3
Impact — Non-EU resin producers may lose market share as the EU prioritizes local production.4
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Meeting with Jeannette Baljeu (Member of the European Parliament)

23 Oct 2025 · Chemicals

Meeting with András Tivadar Kulja (Member of the European Parliament)

21 Oct 2025 · Chemicals and sanitisers

Ecolab Urges Extended Data Protection for Biocidal Products

14 Oct 2025
Topic — A proposal simplifying EU food safety laws and marketing rules for biocidal products.
Message — Ecolab recommends amending Article 95(5) of the Biocidal Product Regulation to safeguard data on biocides. They propose extending data protection while the Review Programme is ongoing and for ten years after approval.12
Why — This protection ensures Ecolab can secure a return on investment for its costly safety studies.3
Impact — Non-EU competitors lose free access to safety data, preventing them from gaining an unfair advantage.4
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Meeting with Klaus Berend (Director Health and Food Safety) and Association Internationale de la Savonnerie, de la Détergence et des Produits d'Entretien

1 Oct 2025 · Evaluation of ethanol as active substance in biocidal products.

Meeting with Pernille Weiss-Ehler (Cabinet of Commissioner Jessika Roswall)

1 Jul 2025 · Water Resilience Strategy

Meeting with Hanna Anttilainen (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné), Laia Pinos Mataro (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné) and

17 Jun 2025 · Simplification agenda, Omnibus Packages; Clean Industrial Deal, Affordable Energy Action Plan

Meeting with Arthur Corbin (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné), Laia Pinos Mataro (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné) and

12 Jun 2025 · Challenges and opportunities in Europe’s Water Sector

Ecolab urges streamlined EU rules for biotech manufacturing

11 Jun 2025
Topic — The EU Biotech Act aims to accelerate laboratory-to-market transitions for biotechnology products.
Message — Ecolab calls for implementing international guidelines to simplify medicine lifecycle management. They also advocate for standardized platform definitions to streamline manufacturing and regulatory approvals.12
Why — Streamlined rules would help Ecolab's customers adopt their products faster, reducing logistical costs.34
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Meeting with Ruth Reichstein (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen) and SUEZ Group and

27 May 2025 · The EU Water Resilience Strategy

Meeting with Ruth Reichstein (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen) and SUEZ Group and

27 May 2025 · to follow

Meeting with Flavio Facioni (Cabinet of Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi) and Association Internationale de la Savonnerie, de la Détergence et des Produits d'Entretien

16 May 2025 · Evaluation of ethanol under the Regulation on Biocidal Products (BPR)

Response to EU Strategy on medical countermeasures

8 May 2025

The European Commission's initiative to enhance the EU's preparedness and response to public health threats is a critical step towards ensuring the safety and well-being of its citizens. Ecolab, a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions, supports this initiative and offers its expertise in contamination control through its Bioquell branded technology and services. Our position paper provides feedback on the initiative, highlighting Bioquell's contributions to combating Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2, insights into relevant emergency response models and best practices from our pharmaceutical and personal care business, and collaborative efforts in emergency preparedness with governments
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Ecolab urges streamlined EU biotech and manufacturing rules

17 Apr 2025
Topic — The EU is developing a strategy to boost competitiveness in life sciences.
Message — Ecolab requests the EU modernize manufacturing rules and adopt a clear Biotech Act. They want standard technology definitions to simplify regulatory approvals globally.12
Why — Harmonized standards would lower administrative costs and simplify trade for their purification products.34
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Meeting with Maroš Šefčovič (Commissioner) and

8 Apr 2025 · State of play on US-EU trade relations

Meeting with Pernille Weiss-Ehler (Cabinet of Commissioner Jessika Roswall)

8 Apr 2025 · Water Resilience Strategy

Meeting with Carlo Ciccioli (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

1 Apr 2025 · ITRE INI on the future of Biotechnologies and Biomanufacturing

Response to 2025 Strategic Foresight Report

19 Mar 2025

Europe is facing a competitiveness crisis and also a growing water quantity crisis. To address this, all measures in the Water Resilience Strategy should prioritize the Water Efficiency First Principle. Below are ECOLABs recommendations for the EU Water Resilience Strategy No EU Competitiveness without properly managing Water in industry: As industry uses more than 50% of freshwater in Europe it has a key role to play in addressing the rapidly growing gap between water supply and demand in the EU. This must be a key component of a truly water-resilient society. The water dimension should be woven into all EU policies, especially on climate and industry as: We cannot talk about decarbonization without talking about water We cannot talk about competitiveness for our industries without talking about water We cannot talk about AI without talking about water The good news is that: It is possible for industry to reduce water use, energy use and carbon emissions at the same time by leveraging the water-energy-productivity nexus With todays existing solutions, we can reduce up to 40% of companies' water utilization while making them more efficient and profitable. This is especially critical for sectors like chemicals, semiconductors, data centers, food & beverage, and renewable hydrogen The EU Water Resilience Strategy (WRS) offers a unique opportunity to drive the adoption of sustainable water management and innovation in the water space With the right mechanisms and a holistic approach to water and energy, we can accelerate and scale existing technologies and innovations while strengthening the competitiveness of key EU sectors. Regional Measures: Water is local and measures that are effective in water-stressed areas do not have the same impact in wetter regions. The WRS should mandate the development of National Water Plans to: Foster water sobriety for all actors with clearly defined water withdrawal reduction targets Optimize resource availability via water conservation plans for all sectors Preserve access to water with targets for water reuse Circularity: Water reuse in Europe is 2.5%, while other regions have achieved significantly higher rates, e.g. 90% in Israel and 10% in California and Saudi Arabia. One major barrier to water reuse is restrictive regulation limiting the use of recycled water in certain sectors. France has removed these barriers, resulting in environmental benefits without impacting human health The WRS must harmonize local legislation to incentivize the highest possible amount of safe water reuse The WRS should be closely linked to the Clean Industrial Deal, the Circular Economy Act and the Vision for Agriculture Measurement: To determine sustainable water use, a precise quantitative assessment of water supply and demand at specific locations is essential. This process is vital as the inability to determine sustainable water use is a significant obstacle to progress in water management and stewardship, hindering investments needed to secure long-term business viability for operations and supply chains. Precise measurement is therefore a strategic imperative, recognizing the critical role water plays in enabling growth, profitability, and competitiveness The WRS must introduce an EU-wide water accounting system with enhanced data interoperability Funding: Achieving a truly water-resilient Europe will require both public and private funding for public water agencies and infrastructure The WRS should create Water-Transition Funds, either as a separate funding vehicle or under the next Multiannual Financial Framework to invest in water Water Efficiency First Principle: This should align closely with the EEF Principle: 1. It is anchored in legislation through a suitable Directive or Regulation 2. Water demand is reduced across all sectors without placing the burden on consumers 3. EU countries are obligated to consider water efficiency solutions in planning, policy, and investment
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Ecolab urges EU to prioritize industrial water efficiency targets

27 Feb 2025
Topic — The consultation seeks to create a cross-sectoral plan for European water resilience.
Message — Ecolab proposes a Water Efficiency First Principle anchored in legislation to reduce industrial demand. They advocate for mandatory National Water Plans and a unified EU-wide water accounting system. This approach aims to harmonize local legislation to incentivize safe water reuse across the continent.123
Why — Mandating efficiency standards would significantly expand the market for Ecolab’s water management services.45
Impact — Industries currently operating with inefficient processes would face new costs to meet reduction targets.6
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Ecolab Urges Modernization of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Quality Standards

25 Feb 2025
Topic — An initiative addressing supply chain vulnerabilities and reducing dependencies on critical medicine imports.
Message — Ecolab advocates updating regulatory guidelines to adopt international quality standards and modernize production. They suggest standardizing cleaning requirements to reduce the validation burden on manufacturers.12
Why — Modernizing standards would increase demand for Ecolab's specialized manufacturing solutions and digital tools.34
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Meeting with Gaelle Marion (Head of Unit Agriculture and Rural Development) and SUEZ Group and

19 Feb 2025 · Water Resilience Strategy and Agriculture

Meeting with Grégory Allione (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

12 Feb 2025 · Réunion Ecolab

Meeting with Aurelijus Veryga (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Feb 2025 · The Role of Sustainable Industrial Water Management in Advancing EU Clean Competitiveness and Water Resilience

Meeting with Carmen Crespo Díaz (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

11 Feb 2025 · The future of EU water resilience

Meeting with Jutta Paulus (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and European Environmental Bureau and

5 Feb 2025 · Water Resilience

Meeting with Thomas Bajada (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Danfoss A/S and

5 Feb 2025 · Meeting on Water Resilience Strategy

Meeting with Elisabeth Werner (Deputy Secretary-General Secretariat-General) and Water Europe

3 Feb 2025 · Antwerp Dialogue, the EU Water Resilience Strategy – An opportunity for European competitiveness

Meeting with Bruno Tobback (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Sept 2024 · EU Water Policy

Response to GreenData4All - Revision of EU legislation on geospatial environmental data and access to environmental information

22 Mar 2024

Ecolab appreciates the opportunity to feed into this important initiative to launch a Common European Green Deal Data Space, aiming to unlock the potential of data in support of actions in areas such as circularity. We warmly welcome any initiative that aims to improve upon data accessibility and a data-centric approach to policymaking. In our view, it is not possible to create such a space with the ambitions noted within the call for evidence without taking a critical look at the status quo in relation to data on water. To effectively improve upon the status quo in relation to water management within the EU, we firmly believe that the establishment of a single EU based water accounting system, designed to collect all types of water related information, is needed. As a foundation, we want there to be maps for water catchments. Existing accurate topographical data should be used to delineate catchment and sub-catchment areas. In addition, there exists detailed groundwater maps which are relevant as these can flow towards or away from rivers and streams. The idea is to then layer the use of such maps to give a comprehensive picture of the contextual availability of water. As a concrete example, there are several thousand metrological stations in the EU. All of them have location coordinates which signifies that we could zoom into to individual catchments and sub-catchments. This should already give valuable insights with regards to supply of water and its intrinsic variability. Key abstraction points can also be positioned on the catchment map described above, potentially highlighting the sub-catchment per abstraction point. Concretely, we want to achieve an improved overview of aspects such as water demand and evapotranspiration losses on a week-by-week basis, identify the finite number of stakeholders and list these in terms of consumptive use and/or water quality impacts. On this basis, we could implement improved water management at a local level based on the best possible data. The initiative for a European Green Deal Data Space provides an opportunity to help make this a reality. About us: As a global leader in water and hygiene solutions and services, Ecolab partners with customers around the world in more than 40 industries, to help them operate more efficiently by optimising water and energy use. The group is present in Europe for over 60 years, employing over 10,000 people in 35 countries across 25 plants, 15 major offices, and 5 R&D centres. In 2021, Ecolab helped empower customers to save 116 million m3 of water and avoid 0.5 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. By 2030, Ecolab aims to help customers save 1.1 billion m3 of water each year and become carbon neutral by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 6 million metric tonnes.
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Meeting with Lukas Visek (Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič) and American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union and

6 Feb 2024 · Water resilience

Meeting with Arunas Ribokas (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius) and American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union and

6 Feb 2024 · water resilience

Meeting with Martin Hojsík (Member of the European Parliament) and Unilever and World Resources Institute

28 Nov 2023 · GLOBE EU event

Meeting with Vlad-Marius Botoş (Member of the European Parliament)

25 Oct 2023 · Water resilience

Ecolab urges EU to treat water as strategic resource

13 Mar 2023
Topic — The EU is planning its long-term strategy for sustainability and strategic autonomy.
Message — Ecolab urges the EU to recognize water as a strategic resource that enables decarbonization. They advocate for circular water management and a harmonized framework for the water-energy nexus.123
Why — Elevating water's strategic importance would boost demand for Ecolab’s water technologies.4
Impact — Energy-intensive industries using outdated discharge methods may face increased operational costs.5
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Meeting with Deirdre Clune (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Veolia Environnement and

7 Feb 2023 · Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive

Meeting with Margrete Auken (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and SUEZ Group and

7 Feb 2023 · Recast of the UWWTD

Meeting with Helena Braun (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and DGA Group Europe SA

20 Sept 2022 · Implementation of the European Green Deal, in particular the importance of water use and water policies for the success of climate and biodiversity ambitions

Meeting with Mohammed Chahim (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

7 Sept 2022 · Industrial Emissions Directive

Meeting with Michal Wiezik (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

5 Sept 2022 · Industrial Emissions Directive

Meeting with Arunas Ribokas (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius) and SUEZ Group and

5 Jul 2022 · To discuss the review of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive

Meeting with Lukas Visek (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and SUEZ Group and

5 Jul 2022 · Urban wastewater treatment (Zero Pollution)

Ecolab urges EU to mandate industrial resource efficiency targets

23 Jun 2022
Topic — A legislative update to minimize pollution and improve resource efficiency in industrial sectors.
Message — Ecolab advocates for mandatory water and energy consumption targets within industrial operating permits. They also recommend starting compliance for facility transformation plans before 2030.12
Why — Stricter efficiency mandates would increase market demand for Ecolab's resource management technologies.34
Impact — Large industrial operators face stricter public transparency rules and higher administrative reporting burdens.5
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Meeting with Camilla Bursi (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius)

22 Oct 2020 · To discuss water conservation and the Industrial Emissions Directive

Response to Commission Regulation setting maximum residue levels for chlorate in or on certain products

18 Feb 2019

Ecolab is a leading provider of hygiene and water services. In Europe, we have more than 10 000 water and sanitation experts working at our customers’ sites, in our of our 30 plants or in one of our state-of-the art research centres, to help make the world cleaner, safer and healthier. In Europe, we wash more than 5.5 billion hands, 25 billion plates, process 133 million loads of laundry and clean dairy operations to help process 57 billion glasses of milk. Specifically in the food industry, we provide products, services and expertise to eliminate foodborne pathogens, improve food cleanliness and sanitation, and keep food safe in processing plants, restaurants and foodservice locations, as well as food retail businesses. As such, we welcome the opportunity to comment on the proposed amendment to Regulation 396/2005 on maximum residue levels of pesticides in food. As pointed out in the recitals of the proposed Regulation, chlorate residues in foodstuffs can come from various channels: from pesticides, from drinking water and/or from chlorine disinfection as well as other possible sources (e.g. by-products of ingredients). Setting a maximum residue level for pesticides only cannot appropriately take into account the other possible sources of chlorate residues. For this reason, the current approach, with a default MRL of 0.01 mg/kg, clearly is impossible to implement in practice in the food industry and we welcome the fact that the Commission recognises this challenge and attempts to address it. Due to well established multiple entry points for chlorate in food production, residue levels will vary greatly from one product to another even in the same category of foodstuffs, depending on where the raw materials have been grown, the quality of drinking water used in the process and the specific needs for disinfection. There can be no “one size fits all” approach. In addition, addressing the issue through the different pieces of legislation (pesticides, drinking water, biocides) can lead to inconsistencies, which is the reason why it is necessary to have a holistic approach corresponding to the entire food production process, which will be necessarily different from one product to another. For a holistic approach to addressing the issue chlorate residues in foodstuffs, we agree with the Commission that the ALARA approach (as low as reasonably achievable) would be the right one. It provides at the same time the necessary food safety guarantees, as well as the required flexibility to adapt to the variety of situations for different types of food production across the EU. The proposed Annex III A, listing MRLs for different types of unprocessed foods, seems to contradict this approach: within a food category, depending on the circumstances certain foodstuffs could easily meet the MRL whereas others would not, in spite of having implemented the ALARA approach. Finally, there is a lack of clarity on how the proposed Regulation would apply to processed foods, seeing there are no values for category 1300000 in the proposed Annex IIIA. We are concerned that this could lead to different interpretations across EU Member States, with some taking an unnecessarily restrictive approach. We would therefore recommend addressing the issue of chlorate residues in food via another means than Regulation 396/2005, to allow for a proper implementation of the ALARA principle.
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Response to Revision of the Drinking Water Directive (RECAST 2017)

2 Apr 2018

NalcoWater welcomes the Commission’s proposal to revise the Drinking Water Directive and its overall objective to guarantee access to abundant and safe drinking water everywhere in Europe. In the attached document, NalcoWater would like to share comments on three specific points in the Commission’s proposal: 1) Water (re)used in the food processing industry 2) Values for chlorate and chlorite 3) Legionella monitoring & risk assessment in domestic distribution
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Meeting with Aurore Maillet (Cabinet of Vice-President Karmenu Vella)

1 Feb 2018 · Water

Meeting with Helena Braun (Cabinet of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

1 Feb 2018 · Discussion on water policies

Meeting with Robert Schröder (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

13 Jun 2017 · Water Innovation

Meeting with Christiane Canenbley (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan)

6 Apr 2017 · Presentation of Nalco Water

Meeting with Grzegorz Radziejewski (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen) and DGA Group Europe SA

8 Dec 2016 · Water policy

Meeting with Jyrki Katainen (Vice-President) and

10 Jun 2016 · EU water policy

Meeting with Peter Van Kemseke (Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič)

9 Jun 2016 · Low-emission mobility

Meeting with Günther Oettinger (Commissioner) and IBM Corporation and

1 Jun 2016 · DSM

Meeting with Peter Van Kemseke (Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič)

17 May 2016 · Water management in an urban context

Meeting with Grzegorz Radziejewski (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

17 Mar 2016 · EU water policy