Following 18 months of preparation, the 14 May general assembly of the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe (APME, B-1160 Brussels; www.apme.org) approved plans to establish a new organisation under the name “PlasticsEurope”, effective 1 January 2005. The new grouping will merge European and national plastics industry associations into one central network with five regional sections – “PlasticsEurope” West, Iberica, Mediterranean, North and Central. The eight new EU member countries in central and eastern Europe at the outset will be part of the Central section based in Frankfurt / Germany.

John Taylor, CEO of Europe´s second largest polyolefins manufacturer, Borealis (DK-2800 Lyngby; www.borealis.com), will serve as first president of the new association. He succeeds, indirectly, APME president Werner Prätorius, long-term head of the styrenic plastics business at BASF (D-67056 Ludwigshafen; www.basf.com), who was instrumental in creating the new structure. In an exclusive interview with Plasteurope.com and its sister publication, KI, Prätorius outlined the thinking behind the new structure at an early stage of the project´s development. – See PIE 02, 2003.