Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) are ready to raise the ambition of the new EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, taking into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery and the EU’s international, climate and environmental commitments.
This is evidenced by the 35 compromise amendments they voted on Tuesday 26 January to the report by Jan Huitema (Renew Europe, Netherlands). The final vote is scheduled for Wednesday 27 January.
This Action Plan 2.0 was proposed by the Commission in March for a sustainable resource-efficient economy (see EUROPE 12444/1). MEPs welcome this.
They underline that the circular economy, linked to the ‘zero pollution’ ambition, is essential to reduce the overall environmental footprint of European production and consumption, respecting the limits of the planet and protecting human health, while ensuring a competitive and innovative economy.
They also emphasise the major contribution that the circular economy can make to achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN’s sustainable development goals.
According to MEPs, the circular economy can provide solutions to the new challenges highlighted by the Covid-19 crisis by strengthening value chains within the EU and globally and reducing their vulnerability, which can contribute to the EU’s strategic autonomy.
In order to achieve a complete decoupling of economic growth and resource use, they call on the European Commission to set binding targets - in the medium and long term - for reducing the use of primary raw materials and their environmental impacts.
MEPs also highlight the opportunities presented by the optimised use of products and services and stress in particular the possibilities of combining circular economy and digital solutions.
In this respect, they call on the Commission and Member States to develop policies to support new circular business models, such as Product as a Service (PaaS) approaches. The Commission is invited to facilitate these approaches in its Sustainable Products Initiative. The institution and the Member States should remove any undue regulatory or fiscal barriers and promote the development of infrastructure for a digital and circular economy, the text stresses.
MEPs underline the need to create economic incentives and a regulatory environment conducive to innovation in solutions, materials and circular business models while eliminating market-distorting and environmentally harmful subsidies.
They invite the Commission to present in 2021 an Ecodesign Directive extended to non-energy related products, establishing horizontal sustainability principles and specific standards for the performance, durability, reusability, repairability, non-toxicity, upgradeability, recyclability, recycled content and resource efficiency of products. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)