COVID-19: Green Deal at the heart of recovery
May 11, 2020
In an open letter EuRIC, the European Recycling Industries Confederation, issued a joint call together with FEAD and CEWEP to put the Green Deal and the new Circular Economy Action Plan at the forefront the post COVID-19 recovery.
In the open letter addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market and Virginijus Sinkevi?ius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, CEWEP, EuRIC and FEAD, representing waste management and recycling industries at European level, “emphasise the need to safeguard the level of ambition of The European Green Deal and of the new Circular Economy Action Plan2 as an integral part of Europe’s COVID-19 recovery plan.”
Cinzia VEZZOSI, President of EuRIC, stressed, in a statement issued together with the joint call, the key role played by Europe’s recycling industry in turning waste into valuable raw materials while saving greenhouse gas emissions and energy.
For EuRIC President, it is vital to use the momentum of the post COVID-19 crisis to direct a significant part of massive public investments towards circular industrial value chains and infrastructures needed to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050.
In that respect, the joint call highlights the importance of prioritising certain measures aiming at:
- Stimulating the demand for secondary raw materials through incentives, their greenhouse gas emissions and energy savings, recycled content targets and green public procurement to bridge circular economy and climate policy;
- Further strengthening the internal market and, in particular, fasten the creation of a well-functioning EU market for secondary raw materials thanks to simplified waste shipment procedures and EU-wide end-of-waste criteria;
- Speeding up work on eco-design to ensure that tomorrow’s products will last longer and be easier to recycle when reaching end-of-life;
- Enhancing investment certainty by implementing current recycling targets and resuming a fact-based discussion on proper treatment of unrecyclable waste in Europe, through energy-recovery or final disposal.
Read the open letter here: file:///Users/StefanieU/Downloads/Openletter-PostCOVID-19SustainableRecovery_EuRIC_CEWEP_FEAD_final_signed.pdf
Categories : World Focus
