Brussels, 18/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The circular economy, as the committee on the environment of the European Parliament sees it and for which it delivered the recipe, in Brussels on Wednesday 17 June, is a systemic change which is vital to allow the EU, the region of the world most dependent on imported resources, to respond to the scarcity of resources, in its own economic interests and those of the environment.
By an extremely comfortable majority (56 votes in favour, 5 against and 5 abstentions), the MEPs of this committee launched an appeal to the European Commission to submit new legislation before the end of the year based on binding waste reduction objectives, a completely revised 'eco-design' directive and a policy to promote the uncoupling of economic growth and the use of resources. In their vote, they took position on the 'Circular economy' package of the previous Commission, which the Juncker Commission has decided to withdraw, pledging new proposals to contain a proposed revision of EU legislation on waste and an action plan for the circular economy (see EUROPE 11324).
“It is a vital step for the EU to use resources more efficiently and to reduce our resource dependency and also to bring savings in material costs”, said rapporteur Sirpa Pietikaïnen (EPP, Finland).
The MEPs mainly expect the new package to contain: - waste prevention measures; - binding objectives to reduce commercial and industrial municipal waste by 2025; - the application of the polluter-pays principle; - increasing the recycling targets and preparations to ensure that 70% of solid municipal waste and 80% of packaging waste is reused by 2030; - limits on the incineration of non-recyclable and non-biodegradable waste by 2020; - a binding and gradual reduction of all waste going to landfill; - a revision of the 'eco-design' directive by the end of 2016, extending the scope of application of the text to all products and defining criteria of sustainability, repair ability, reusability and recyclability; - proposals to end built-in obsolescence. (Aminata Niang)