ICL Europe Coöperatief U.A.
ICL EUROPE
ICL is a leading global specialty minerals company that creates impactful solutions for humanity’s sustainability challenges in the global food, agriculture, and industrial markets.
ID: 668831246055-55
Lobbying Activity
Response to Circular Economy Act
6 Nov 2025
ICL Group, a manufacturer of innovative and sustainable fertilizing products and one of the leading EU players in recycled fertilizers, welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this consultation and share its views on advancing a circular economy for nutrients. Developing a circular nutrient economy is a strategic opportunity for Europe, as it can help reduce dependency on imported critical raw materials such as phosphate, thereby strengthening the resilience of agricultural supply chains. At the same time, it can minimize environmental impacts associated with waste disposal and nutrient losses, while reducing the overall agricultural footprint by promoting the recycling of livestock production by-products, such as manure and slurry. Furthermore, promoting nutrient recycling fosters innovation and competitiveness in the European fertilizer sector, supporting the creation of safe and high-quality circular products. Supporting regulatory frameworks, incentives, and awareness efforts for nutrient recycling is essential to unlock these benefits and build a truly sustainable and self-reliant European nutrient system. Please, find attached our contribution which details key points that, in our view, need to be reviewed to develop the Circular Economy in European Union.
Read full responseResponse to Evaluation of the Fertilising Products Regulation
19 Sept 2025
ICL Group thanks the European Commission for launching the evaluation of the FPR regulation, noting that its implementation is still recent, just over three years, and not yet fully completed to date. ICL is engaged in the evaluation of the EU FPR and submitted a detailed answer to the survey, answering the different aspects of the call for evidence. ICL Group welcomed the publication of the Fertilising Products Regulation (FPR) in 2019. From 2022, It has enabled access to the European market for a broader range of fertilising products, notably biostimulants, organic and organo-mineral fertilisers, as well as circular fertilisers, by providing an harmonized European framework, although further steps are still needed to ensure full and effective implementation. Indeed, 6 years later, regulatory blockages for innovation, missing materials, and slow adaptation of component material categories (CMCs) have meant that access to the single market for innovative and/or circular products has not materialized in a meaningful way. Now is the time to update the FPR to establish a regulation that genuinely supports innovation and circularity, ensuring a competitive, autonomous and sustainable future for EU Agriculture. In our contribution, which complements our answer to the survey, we will detail key points that, in our opinion, need to be reviewed to fully deliver on the FPR original objectives: 1. Ensuring access to the EU market for fertilising products derived from secondary raw materials, thereby supporting the objectives of the circular economy. 2. Facilitating market access and recognition of innovative fertilising products that deliver environmental benefits while supporting farmers livelihoods. 3. Providing real and complete access to the EU market for innovative plant biostimulants, including microbial biostimulants, through a clear and harmonised regulatory framework. Please find attached our contribution to the call for evidence.
Read full response29 Mar 2024
ICL Group, a leading global specialty plant nutrition company, welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to the public consultation on the delegated act setting biodegradability criteria for polymers used as coating agents for controlled release fertilizers (CRFs) under the Fertilizing Products Regulation (FPR 2019/1009) published by the European Commission. Overall, ICL supports the Commission's proposal and would like to stress the importance of the timely adoption of the delegated act, by July 2024. The proposed text sets effective biodegradability criteria and test methods to verify compliance. While ICL supports this delegated act, we share important remarks and suggestions detailed in the attached position paper. We ask the European Commission to consider our comments and suggestions detailed in our paper on the proposed delegated act to provide a clear framework for all operators in the fertilizers value chain.
Read full responseMeeting with Martin Hojsík (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)
4 Mar 2024 · Soil Law
Response to Soil Health Law – protecting, sustainably managing and restoring EU soils
2 Nov 2023
ICL GROUP welcomes the Commissions ambition of achieving healthy soils by 2050 by granting European soils with a legal status, while respecting subsidiarity and proportionality principles. The proposal provides a starting point for the development of an EU Monitoring Framework for European Soils. Soil is the primary medium for agriculture, therefore ensuring healthy soils across the European Union is of paramount importance for Europes strategic autonomy of food systems. As a manufacturer of fertilizing products, ICL provides the key nutrients needed for soil and plants to grow healthy crops and ensure soil fertility over time while aiming at securing sustainable food production. Soil health is vital for ensuring the resilience of European ecosystems in the face of our changing climate, and for providing the EU with sufficient, safe and nutritious food. ICL GROUP welcomes the possibility of providing feedback on such a proposal. We believe that the following aspects should be considered when finalizing the Soil monitoring and resilience directive proposal: 1. Nutrient content in Agricultural soils: Introduce nutrients deficiency as soil health parameters for agricultural soils. Change approach to phosphorus management in agricultural soils: implement the appropriate indicators. 2. Develop a holistic approach to sustainable soil management: Encourage the development of science-based thresholds at Member States level. Introduce Nutrient Use Efficiency among the Sustainable Soil Management principles. Replace the One-Out-All-Out criterion with a Soil health index to reflect the overall health and quality of soils. Our position and all the points presented above are detailed in the attached document. Thank you for considering our comments and suggestions.
Read full responseResponse to The reporting obligations during the transitional period of the carbon border adjustment mechanism.
11 Jul 2023
ICL Group welcomes the possibility to share its views with the European Commission on the Implementing Act for CBAM reporting obligations during the transitional period. ICL Group is a manufacturer of fertilizing products both in European Union and outside the Union. Certain goods that the company is producing and/or importing fall in the scope of the CBAM regulation. ICL Group would like to put forward the following comments and recommendations: 1. Use of International Emission Factor Databases to ensure manufacturer compliance with CBAM rules when some of the input data is not available within the mandatory time frame: Complex (NPK, NK, NP) fertilizers are produced by manufacturers using precursors (fertilizing material) falling in the scope of CBAM. It is common practice that some of these input materials are purchased from external suppliers. The final product will be classified as a mixed fertilizer in the CBAM regulation and when importing such goods into the European Union, a CBAM declaration will have to be made. The mechanism proposed and set out in article 5 of the Commission implementing regulation will not be a solution in most of the cases for the mixed fertilizers as the 20% limit will be exceeded for many grades. To ensure the possibility for all manufacturers of mixed fertilizers to remain fully compliant with CBAM, where some of the input data required to prepare the CBAM report may be unavailable, we suggest the following amendments: When a reporting declarant is unable to obtain an emission factor for a precursor used in a mixed fertilizer within the mandatory time frame, we recommend: - to delete the limit of 20% in the article 5 for the mixed fertilizers during the transitional phase. - to recognize the use of emission factors from recognised international databases, such as PEF or Ecoinvent database. This could be clearly stated in the Annex III.E.3 of the Commission implementing regulation. 2. Simplify the Information to be provided in the CBAM reports detailed in Annex I: Generally speaking, the information requested to be submitted in a CBAM report, as detailed in the annex I of the Commission implementing regulation, is rather complex, very detailed and sometimes still unclear. To illustrate this, it is required to provide the installation emissions, including the overall emissions and the direct & indirect emissions. A manufacturer of mixed fertilizers is producing many different grades of fertilizers in the same factory, using different recipies. Due to that reason, the product carbon footprint calculation is usually done according to a bottom-up approach and the overall emissions of the installations are not the most appropriate tool. We recommend to modify the status of the information in the Annex I to optional for the installation emissions during the transition phase, at least for the manufacturer of mixed fertilizers. Please find attached our position paper. Thank you for considering our propositions.
Read full responseResponse to Carbon Removal Certification
23 Mar 2023
ICL Group welcomes the European Commission proposal for a Regulation establishing a Union certification framework for carbon removals (COM(2022) 672). The proposal represents a positive starting point for an EU harmonised voluntary and regulated market for carbon removals and especially carbon farming. ICL Group believes carbon removals are useful to mitigate climate change and to reach net zero emission. But we want to stress that climate change mitigation must be first realised through greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction. Carbon removals should only be used to balance GHG emissions that cannot or are hard to reduce. Our contribution to this proposal focuses on agricultural carbon farming. We do recognise the importance for climate mitigation of other carbon sequestration activities, such as forestry carbon farming, carbon storage products, and the technical removal solutions the proposal covers. As a manufacturer of fertilizing products, ICL Group provides the key nutrients necessary for soils and plants to grow healthy crop and food and ensure soil fertility and health. Providing nutrients to crops in the most efficient and sustainable way is our responsibility. By supplying these nutrients, our company and industry contribute to enhance soil carbon sequestration by biomass production above and below ground, ultimately resulting in an increased carbon sequestration potential. ICL Group welcomes the possibility to provide feedback. We believe that the following aspects should be taken into consideration in order to create a functional and reliable system for carbon removals activities in agriculture, while at the same time fulfilling other sustainability objectives the European Commission has: 1. Extend the certification framework on carbon removals to cover the efforts in decreasing or avoiding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture 2. Carbon farming as a tool to support the transition at a farm level towards sustainable farming while building-up soil fertility and soil health. EU Food security should also remain a top priority of EU Agriculture. 3. Ensure transparency and allow participation of all interested stakeholders in the process, especially during the drafting of the secondary legislation that will complement the framework. Our detailed contribution is available in the attached document. Thank you for considering our contribution.
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