The guidelines for recovering energy from waste, which were presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 25 January, are an essential stage in the implementation of the action plan for the circular economy of December 2015, but only one stage. The European Commission has other proposals in sight for 2017, its Vice-President responsible for Sustainable Development, Frans Timmermans, announced on Thursday 26 January, welcoming the progress already made (see EUROPE 11711, 11701).
"Building a circular economy in Europe is a priority for the Commission. Yesterday, we took stock of this at the College on the basis of the implementation report of the action plan. We have made good and timely progress and are planning further initiatives in 2017. The ball is now in the court of the Parliament and the Council. We will be squaring the circle of the design, production and consumption of products right through to waste management", Timmermans told the European press.
With the guidelines to help the member states transform waste into energy without resources being wasted, and the launch of the support platform for the financing of the circular economy (see other article), the Commission is sending a message to investors: recycling is the future, that is where you should be investing, the Vice-President said.
He also referred to, amongst other recent progress, the "eco-design" plan of work for 2016-2019, which was adopted by the Commission in November 2016, and the launch of the platform for the prevention of food waste and wastage. The Court of Auditors recently criticised the Commission for its lack of political goodwill, arguing that this platform was not the right instrument to tackle the problem, but Timmermans took pains to stress that the platform aims to measure this waste and feed into guidelines to support food donations (see EUROPE 11678).
The progress report on the initiatives launched by the Commission covers in total 20 of the 54 points of the action plan for the circular economy (see EUROPE 11693, 11665).
The proposals on the table and the next steps will be discussed with all stakeholders at a conference to be hosted by the Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels on 9 and 10 March.
The announced forthcoming initiatives include: - the strategy for plastics, which is expected for autumn 2017 (see EUROPE 11701); - the initiative concerning the interface between legislations on chemicals, products and waste, which will cover the traceability of worrying substances in products, their traceability in recycled materials and problems encountered in the application of the EU's waste classification methods; - a legislative proposal on the reuse of water, which will lay down minimum requirements for the reuse of water for irrigation and feeding into the groundwater, in order to increase the recycling of nutrients present in wastewater. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)