Brussels, 18/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Having been up and running for six months, the European platform for resource-efficiency, the high level advisory body that steers implementation of the roadmap that is to help the EU raise this challenge, has drafted its policy paper (see EUROPE 10751). Speaking to the press after the Environment Council on 17 December, Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik welcomed the manifesto.
The “Manifesto for a Resource-Efficient Europe”, which was published on Monday, springs from consensus between the representatives of European institutions, industry, governments and civil society. It invites all stakeholders to support resource efficiency and promote the circular economy in order to help the EU overcome the current crisis through re-industrialisation of the European economy based on resource-efficient and sustainable growth. To achieve this, the manifesto recommends: - encouraging innovation and accelerating public and private investment in resource-efficient technologies, systems and skills, also in SMEs, through a dynamic and predictable political, economic and regulatory framework; - adopting and implementing smart regulation, standards and codes of conduct that create a level playing field, reward front-runners, accelerate transition and take into account the social and international implications of EU action; - abolishing environmentally harmful subsidies and shifting the tax burden away from jobs to encourage resource-efficiency; - creating better market conditions for products and services that have lower impact across their life-cycles, and that are durable, repairable and recyclable; - integrating current and future resource scarcities and vulnerabilities more coherently into wider policy areas at national, European and global level, such as in the fields of transport, food, water and construction; - and providing clear signals to all economic players by adopting policy goals to achieve a resource-efficient economy and society by 2020, with indicators to measure progress.
Mikael Karlssson, EEB President and a member of the platform, welcomes the manifesto as a good basis for further work, saying: “The fact that participants from a broad spectrum of political parties and institutions, as well as from civil society and business, were able to reach consensus on the importance of setting targets, adopting regulations, phasing out harmful subsidies and reforming the tax system to encourage resource efficiency and to promote the circular economy was a significant achievement”. The first detailed recommendations over the short term are expected at the next meeting in June 2013. (AN/transl.jl)