EU officials have begun talks with industry and other stakeholders as the European Commission prepares a new Circular Economy Act, with the College of Commissioners due to discuss the plan on 6 May.
Stéphane Séjourné, the Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, and Jessika Roswall, the Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, chaired a high-level dialogue to gather input for the legislation, the Commission announced on Thursday.
Participants discussed how to “unlock” the EU Single Market for the circular economy — meaning making it easier for circular products and materials to move and be used across EU countries.
They also covered how to recover critical raw materials from waste and how to build a stronger market for secondary raw materials, which are materials reused or recycled from products that have reached the end of their life.
Next workshop expected to draw more than 1,000 participants
A final stakeholder workshop will take place after the introductory dialogue, with more than 1,000 participants set to discuss options that could be included in the new law, the Commission said.
Topics for that workshop are expected to include reducing the EU’s dependence on imported critical raw materials, simplifying rules for secondary raw materials, and improving access to circular “feedstocks” — inputs used to make new products — across the Single Market.
