On Thursday 5 March, all EU Environment Ministers confirmed their conviction that the Second EU Action Plan for a Circular Economy will be a major contribution of the European Green Deal to a cleaner and more competitive Europe and will be decisive for the EU’s climate neutrality and the preservation of biodiversity, provided that all stakeholders – including consumers – are involved.
Almost all of them expressed their impatience to see this second action plan on the table, which aims at less waste, more recycling, products incorporating circularity from their design and sustainable use of the planet’s limited resources (see EUROPE 12342/3).
It will be presented on 10 March, together with the industrial strategy for sustainable production and consumption (see EUROPE 12417/8). The European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, confirmed this to the Environment Council during a debate on actions to be proposed to ensure that the development of the circular economy benefits all economic actors along value chains and to help consumers make sustainable choices.
At the end of the debate, the President-in-Office of the Council, the Croatian Minister for Environment and Energy, Tomislav Ćorić, noted that many delegations had stressed the importance of the EU Forest Strategy and welcomed the fact that the European Green Deal foresees that the forthcoming action plan will contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals.
There was also consensus on the need to: – think about the entire life cycle of products, from design to production to use; – focus on resource-intensive sectors; – reduce plastic pollution; – enable the consumer to play a key role, in particular by providing adequate information, including digital information.
“The circular economy must concern the whole of Europe. The action plan must help those who do not yet see the opportunities it offers. The circular economy will benefit citizens, businesses and our planet”, said Environment Commissioner, stressing that decoupling growth from resource extraction will reduce the impact on biodiversity.
Referring to the Action Plan for the Circular Economy 2.0, he stressed the role of eco-innovation and the importance of consumer commitments and the need for green products to become the rule.
During the debate, Ministers agreed on the need to make better use of products and to be able to repair them, to focus on targeted actions in sectors such as packaging, batteries, construction, food, textiles, and to create a real market for secondary raw materials.
The Czech Republic is the only Member State to feel that the EU is moving a bit too fast, as the revision of the Waste Directives took place in 2018 and the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Single-Use Plastics was adopted last year. According to this Member State, “it would be better to implement the targets that have been set in 2018 and 2019 before moving on”.
Sweden is the only country to have insisted on the need for non-toxic material cycles and high-quality materials that are non-toxic with respect to their content. France suggested banning the destruction of unsold non-food items, which represents several billion euros at the European level each year.
A European plastics pact will be officially launched on Friday 6 March in Brussels, at the initiative of France and the Netherlands, supported by Denmark, in the presence of the Commission and the CEOs of the voluntary companies. France clarified that the pact aimed at voluntary commitments to reduce the use of virgin plastics and invited other delegations to “join this ambitious initiative”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)