The Fort Worth Press - The EU's Clean Industrial Deal Can't Succeed Without Using a Major Leap in Technology

MIAMI, FL / ACCESS Newswire / March 3, 2025 / The European Union's Clean Industrial Deal (CID) is more than just an industrial policy overhaul-it's a roadmap for transforming Europe's economy into a circular, resilient, and decarbonized powerhouse. As importantly, the CID is a manageable ambition that refrains from hysterics and instead focuses on what's achievable.

Remember, while the largest companies may compete fiercely 80% of the time, history shows that the remaining 20%-when they collaborate-has the power to reshape industries and even the world. The CID offers precisely this opportunity, creating the conditions for meaningful cooperation that drives systemic change.

For SMX (NASDAQ: SMX), a company pioneering molecular-based traceability and authentication technology for materials, the CID presents a golden opportunity to lead in a market poised for exponential growth. As a single technology platform capable of uniting all stakeholders-from raw materials to finished goods to recycling-SMX isn't just keeping pace with regulatory shifts; it's setting the standard for a new era of transparency.

More critically, its ability to transform waste into value means that sustainability is no longer just a compliance exercise-it's a tangible financial opportunity for those who embrace it. The CID isn't just policy; it's an open invitation for innovation-and SMX is uniquely positioned to answer the call.

SMX Technology- A Master Key to a Circular and Transparent Economy

SMX's cutting-edge digital twin technology-which molecularity marks, tracks, and authenticates materials from production to reuse-addresses multiple CID objectives:

• Industrial Decarbonization & Circularity - SMX ensures materials are recycled, reused, and authenticated, aligning with the EU's push for secondary raw materials and waste reduction.

• Supply Chain Transparency - The CID emphasizes traceable value chains, which SMX enables with tamper-proof blockchain-based tracking.

• Reducing Carbon Leakage - The CID's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) reforms demand carbon footprint validation in global trade, where SMX's verification systems can provide an undeniable advantage.

• Compliance with EU Regulations - SMX's solutions can help businesses meet CID's circularity targets while ensuring compliance with new sustainability mandates.

In other words, SMX technology is the gold standard that others envy. While some companies may be able to offer some of the benefits of SMX, no known company can do all of them. That's important, especially when trying to assemble a working program with seamless integration. In this instance, if it intends to be efficient in meeting objectives, the CID shouldn't be looking to save a pound by trying to manipulate square technology pegs into round holes. They don't have to.

SMX technology, while mainly under the radar until 2024, is providing scores of validating use cases that show itself as a one-stop solution to facilitate supply chain circularity in industries like textiles, precious metals, plastics, commodities, rubber, and more. A recent report by Frost & Sullivan offers some deep insights into how its technology works. Read it here.

The EU's Push for Circularity

What's most obvious in that report is that if the CID intends to make Europe the world leader in the circular economy by 2030, SMX should play a significant role. The planned Circular Economy Action Plan is asking for precisely the things SMX can do- standardize secondary materials and digital tracking systems that create an immutable digital twin that can track, trace, and authenticate products from source to end use.

With its Plastic Cycle Token, SMX offers something even better- a financial incentive to recycle instead of waste through a trading market that is open 24/7/365. There's more to appreciate from SMX's value proposition, including providing all the right answers to the CID wish list. That includes:

• "End-of-Waste" Criteria Harmonization - The EU seeks uniform standards for recycled materials. SMX's molecular-level tracing ensures authenticity, facilitating regulatory acceptance of recycled content.

• Mandatory Digitalization of Demolition & Pre-Demolition Audits - CID regulations will require digital tracking of construction waste, a perfect fit for SMX's technology.

• Critical Raw Materials & Black Mass Recycling - The EU is targeting high-reliability recycling of materials like lithium and rare earth metals. SMX's ability to verify material origins will be invaluable for compliance with new export restrictions.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

There's more. A crucial CID reform is the simplification and expansion of CBAM, which will tighten carbon tracking requirements for imported goods. SMX can position itself as a critical enabler of CBAM compliance by:

• Authenticating Embedded Carbon in Goods - Manufacturers will need real-time, auditable carbon data, which SMX's blockchain-based verification can provide.

• Preventing Carbon Leakage - CBAM's extension to indirect emissions will require advanced supply chain tracking, where SMX's technology guarantees data integrity.

• Verifying Carbon Offsets & Plastic Credits - SMX's Plastic Cycle Token (PCT) could become a benchmark for verifiable carbon and plastic offset trading, surpassing the limitations of carbon credits.

The above is more than essential to CID's success; it's mandatory, especially with the CID planning to use tax dollars to create an Industrial Decarbonization Bank with contributions estimated at $100 billion (EUR). Considering the size of the investment, energy-intensive industries will need and demand real-time monitoring tools to validate and optimize energy efficiency measures. SMX's traceability platform can also support those interests with blockchain-backed certification of renewable energy use, a natural extension of SMX's authentication technology.

SMX Traceability Solutions Equally Important

Another CID box checked by SMX is through its ability to trace the origins and movement of products in sectors such as:

• Steel & Metals - EU procurement will favor low-carbon steel verified through traceability systems, where SMX can be a leader.

• Plastics & Textiles - The CID's upcoming carbon-intensity labeling requirements could push manufacturers to adopt SMX's tracking system to validate recycled content.

• Construction & Demolition Waste - The EU will digitize materials tracking to reduce landfill waste, opening up a market for SMX's tamper-proof verification solutions.

The Climate Action department allocates $1 billion (EUR) for hydrogen auctions, supporting clean hydrogen certification. SMX's tracking technology could be integrated into hydrogen verification to ensure Green Hydrogen Authenticity, preventing false claims of hydrogen purity in cross-border trade. Through the mentioned plastic cycle token, clean energy credit trading can be facilitated, thereby expanding SMX's plastic cycle token (PCT) model to energy tracking.

SMX Technology Enables EU Industrial Competitiveness

Make no mistake- the Clean Industrial Deal is Europe's most ambitious industrial transformation strategy to date. The great news is that it's designed in an achievable way. But it needs help, the type that SMX is uniquely positioned to provide across virtually every facet of this transition.

Remember, traceability is becoming the cornerstone of regulatory compliance, circularity, and industrial decarbonization. In that measure, SMX's technology can be the most efficient and seamless way for companies to navigate the CID's stringent requirements by doing the work to authenticate recycled materials, verify carbon footprints, ensure supply chain integrity, and enable verifiable sustainability credits.

All told, SMX can be more than a beneficiary of the CID-it's an essential enabler of its success. Most importantly, as industries across Europe scramble to adapt, SMX isn't conceptualizing what it might be able to do- it stands ready to provide the missing link between policy, compliance, and market transformation.

About SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited Company
As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements
The information in this press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intends," "may," "will," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company's fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company's stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX's joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX's strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX's ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX's ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX's ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX's product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX's business model; developments and projections relating to SMX's competitors and industry; and SMX's approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company's shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX's business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX's products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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H.Carroll--TFWP