1. Closing the loop – An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy

2. Circular Economy: a priority
Protecting the environment and boosting competitiveness go hand-in-hand: both are about building a sustainable future.
Jobs, Growth and Investment
Democratic Change, Better Regulation
Energy Union and Climate
CIRCULAR ECONOMY

3. Circular Economy
Transition towards a Circular Economy
The value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible
Waste generation is minimised
Brings economic, social and environmental gains

4. International dimension
EU's international commitments
2030 Sustainable Agenda
Paris Agreement to combat climate change
G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency
EU's international commitments
2030 Sustainable Agenda, adopted by the United Nations in Sept 2015
COP21, historic agreement on 2°C global warming limit in Dec 2015
G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency, building more sustainable supply chains and global markets for secondary raw materials

5. Key action areas Production Consumption Secondary raw materials
Innovation, Investment, Monitoring
Secondary raw materials
New or revised legislation: waste proposals, fertilisers, water reuse
Strengthened and more coherent implementation: support to compliance in waste policy, products policy, guidance on industrial emissions, consumers protection against unfair practices, interface between waste, products and chemicals legislations
Voluntary approaches: Green Public Procurement, EMAS, EU Eco-label, standards on secondary raw materials and on recovery of materials from electronic waste, sustainable sourcing, certification of waste facilities
Better use of information: Environmental Footprint, Raw Materials Information Systems, platforms on food waste, on financing
Combination of EU funding (Horizon 2020, EFSI) and private financing
Waste Management

6. Priority sectors Biomass & Bio-based Products Plastics Food Waste
Construction & Demolition
Plastics
Objectives
Increase efficiency in recycling - less than 25% of plastic waste collected is recycled, and about 50% goes to landfill
Actions
New strategy on plastics including marine litter.
A more ambitious target for the recycling of plastic packaging in the legislative proposal on waste.
Food Waste
Reach Sustainable Development Goal to halve food waste by 2030 – today around 100 million tonnes of food are wasted annually in the EU.
Develop an EU methodology to measure food waste.
Create a platform for the SDG on food waste and to share best practice and results achieved.
Clarify EU legislation relating to waste, food and feed, and facilitate food donation.
Improve the use and understanding of date marking along the food chain (e.g."best before" label).
Critical Raw Materials
Increasing efficient use and recovery of CRMs.
Prepare a report on best practices and options for further action at the EU level.
Incentives/requirements in the waste directives.
Construction & Demolition
Make buildings more resource efficient
Facilitate the assessment of the environmental performance of buildings, via the development of core indicators.
Ensure adequate waste management including reuse and recycling of construction material, via the development of pre-demolition guidelines and voluntary recycling protocols.
Biomass & bio-based products
Support an efficient use of wood and bio-based products
Increase recycling of bio-waste
Promote an efficient use of bio-based resources through a series of measures, such as the promotion of the cascading use of biomass and support to innovation in the bio-economy
New target for recycling wood packaging and a provision to ensure the separate collection of bio-waste
Critical Raw Materials

7. Implementation-Circular Economy
Action Plan
Communication
List of Follow-up
Initiatives (Annex)
4 Legislative
proposals on waste
1/3 of the actions are being implemented
Under debate at the Council and at the European Parliament

8. State of Play-done What has been done so far?
Legislative proposals on waste
Tackling false green claims
Green Public Procurement
Call "Industry 2020 and the circular economy" under Horizon 2020
Legislative Proposal on fertilizers
Best practices of water reuse
"Innovation Deals"
Stakeholders platform on food waste
Waste: The proposals are undergoing the ordinary legislative process.
False green claims:
The updated Guidance on Unfair Commercial Practices is a comprehensive text designed to clarify and guide the proper application of the 2005 Directive on unfair commercial practices (UCPD). It does ensure that "traders do not present environmental claims in ways that are unfair to consumers" while "preventing competitors from presenting misleading environmental claims".
Green Public Procurement:
'Buying Green' handbook and development of
Green Public Procurement criteria for more than 20 products
Innovation: Over €650 million are allocated to ‘Industry 2020 in the circular economy’, in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme for On-going preparatory work seems to indicate that Horizon2020 will continue to support such actions also during the time period.
Revised Fertilizers: Proposal undergoing the legislative iter. The proposal aims to facilitate the use of organic fertilizers.
Water Reuse : a guidance document to integrate water re-use in water planning and management has been endorsed by EU Water directors (MS+stakeholders) in June The document should be regarded as presenting an informal consensus position on best practice agreed by all partners The Commission is also going to carry out another open public consultation on its water reuse initiative (as it is now focused on a legislative proposal setting minimum quality requirements for reused water in the EU). Replies to this OPC will inform the Impact Assessment of our proposal which is to be finalised in spring 2017.
Also for water reuse: a new BREFs on Common Waste Water and Waste Gas Treatment has been adopted in the summer 2016.
Innovation Deals: the call was open until 15-sep. they received above 30 proposals. Up to five Expressions of Interest will be selected and will become Innovation Deals. The selection will happen October – December 2016 and they will start working beginning Evaluation of the pilot mid 2018.
Food Waste: The Platform will bring together public entities (Member States/EFTA countries, EU bodies and international organisations) and actors in the food value chain including consumer- and other non-governmental organisations. Private sector organisations were selected through an open call for applications which closed 27 May 2016.
Platform launched in August, will have its first meeting on 29 November devoted to discuss the methodology to measure food waste.

9. State of Play- Next Steps
by the end of 2016
Eco-design
Communication 'Waste to Energy'
REFIT of EU Ecolabel and of EMAS.
Preparation for next steps Pilots Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
Green Financing Platform with the EIB and national banks
Assessment of the contribution of Circular Economy to the Bio-economy Strategy
Recycling Protocol for Construction and Demolition Waste
Waste to Energy
Its adoption is foreseen by the end of the year.
Platform between EIB +National Banks:
Internal discussions still ongoing. Focus on the platform on advisory services rather than direct funding.
Bioeconomy Strategy and the Circular Economy
A series of IS meetings is taking place Q42016 to discuss the review of the Bioeconomy Strategy in The conceptual framework of the strategy (what is the bioeconomy and what is the EU approach) is still valid and should not be changed. Update and refocus needed on the second part with the concrete actions.
Recycling protocol for the CDW:
The C&D protocol is being finalized with adoption foreseen by the end of It focuses on the quality of the materials and to increase the trust in them. The intention is to run a pilot phase with business to start implementing it and then assess future options: developing a formal standard or keep its voluntary nature. For 2017: communication campaign.

10. State of Play-Next steps
2017
Plastics Strategy
Pre-demolition assessment guidelines for the construction sector
Development of indicators for the assessment of the environmental performance of buildings
Interface chemicals, products and waste legislation
Monitoring and indicator framework
On-going
Quality standards for secondary raw materials market
New/revised BREFs for industrial sectors
Use of Cohesion funds for Circular Economy
Pre-demolition assessment guidelines:
Adoption foreseen for early It is aimed to be picked up by industry which will provide indication for the next steps (more formal standards or voluntary status)
Indicators for the assessment of the environmental performance of buildings
The indicators are being developed via a major stakeholder exercise, and include both resource use indicators and indicators linked to the quality and the value of buildings. They will provide a common language for the mainstream market in communicating on environmental performance. They will be presented, together with guidelines on how to use them, by summer 2017.
Development of quality standards:
Currently performing two mapping exercises on sustainable chemicals (sustainability of plastics covering 80%) and the bio-forestry industry; industry will need to prioritize its needs and Commission will determine if formal standards or voluntary protocols are the best answer.
Circular Economy in BREFS:
Including guidance on CE in new/revised BREFs for industrial sectors is an on–going process. BAT Conclusions for non-ferrous metals adopted in June.
ENV.C.4 is engaged in identifying Key Environmental Issues to be addressed in BREFs to be reviewed soon. This will cover, besides emissions to air and water, aspects of circular economy such as resource efficiency, water reuse, industrial symbiosis and substitution of hazardous substances.
The inventory by ENV.C.1 of water reuse guidance included in existing BREFs is good support and a good practice that should inspire other policy units.
Cohesion Funds
cohesion policy allocates about EUR 150 billion to objectives with a direct relevance to the circular economy, such as research and innovation, SMEs, low-carbon economy, resource efficiency and waste management. The implementation of the national and regional programmes is now fully underway and projects are being selected by the Member States. Capacity-building and technical assistance: we offer various mechanisms to help Member States implement the programmes and carry out good projects (including Jaspers for Major Projects, focused state aid seminars,  fi-compass for financial instruments), so the available resources are used in an optimal way. Technical assistance budget is also available to Member States. Cross-border cooperation: several programmes foster interregional cooperation on circular economy activities. The performance framework, which includes a number of indicators, is geared towards achieving real results from the funded projects. The allocations and expected results are visualised in the new Open Data Platform.

11. Implementation-other actors
Other European Institutions
At National Level
Stakeholders' engagement

12. Other European Institutions
Council
Discussions on the Waste Proposals
Council conclusions on the Action Plan
European Parliament
Report of the ENVI Committee
Draft reports of Simona Bonafé
Opinions of EP ITRE Committee
Committee of the Regions
Final opinion on the waste proposals
Upcoming opinion on the Action Plan
EESC
Opinion on the Circular Economy Package
Council:
The legislative proposals on waste are being discussed in the Council Working Group- well received so far.
Council conclusions on the Action Plan adopted on the 20th June, supportive of the Circular Economy action plan.
On ecodesign (par.8): the Council expresses concerns about the delays on eco-design; request to evaluate by 2018 which product groups other than energy-related could better integrate resource-efficiency aspects in their design, building on the experience of the Ecodesign regulations.
On legal guarantees (par.9): the Council intends to discuss the extension of the legal guarantee for all sales of goods, based on the Commission's proposal on online sales.
On marine litter (par.14): the Council requests a ban on micro-plastics in cosmetics and similar initiatives on other products.
On the monitoring framework (par.23): the dashboard of reliable indicators should be developed in view of formulating ambitious and realistic targets with a long-term horizon
On reporting: the Council requests a written annual update and regular evaluation of the effect of implemented actions, starting in 2018.
On the stakeholder platform: the Council asks for an EU platform for structural exchange of knowledge and good practices between Member States and stakeholders.
Intense work will be needed under the Slovak Presidency
European Parliament:
Report of the ENVI Committee to be adopted in autumn, based on the published draft reports of Simona Bonafé and the opinions of EP ITRE Committee (June).
Committee of the Regions:
CoR opinion adopted on 15 June 2016 on the waste proposals. The opinion on the Action Plan is foreseen for next
EESC:
They welcomed the package. Points of concern:
level of ambition of the package,
social and labour related benefits and risks of the circular economy,
the weakness of the economic instruments as drivers of the transtion,
possibility of launching and European Platform for the Circular Economy.

13. At national level Member States are implementing the package
National Parliaments opinions on the Package
Some cities are becoming 'circular'
Some examples of the actions taken at member state level:
France- "Loi de Transition Énergétique pour la Croissance Verte"
Germany- German Resource Efficiency Programme (ProgRess II)
The Netherlands-"From waste to resource" (VANG-programme)
Examples of National Parliaments' opinions on the Package:
Folketing (DK)'s Opinion on the Commission's proposals on waste
Assemblée nationale (FR)'s Opinion on the Circular Economy Package
Riksdag (SE)'s Opinion on the Circular Economy package
Cities applying the Circular Economy:
Brussels- "Programme Régional de l'économie circulaire"
Amsterdam- Report "Circular Amsterdam"

14. Stakeholders' engagement
Exchange of best practices and knowledge
European Innovation Partnerships (Raw materials-water)
Support of voluntary business approaches and public-private partnerships
Role of private institutions and NGOs
Ellen McArthur Foundation
Institut de l'Économie Circulaire
Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)
According to the Action Plan the Commission will:
1. Engagement with stakeholders in the implementation of this action plan through existing fora in key sectors
2. Support to a range of stakeholders through actions on public-private partnerships, cooperation platforms, support to voluntary business approaches, and exchanges of best practices
As result of this engagement and the interest shown of the Circular Economy, many private institutions are actively contributing to the dissemination of the Circular Economy concept and exchange of good practices:
Ellen McArthur Foundation- recent publications: the new plastics economy: 1. rethinking of the future of the plastics and 2.intelligent assets: unlocking the circular economy potential.
Institut de l'Économie Circulaire: they have launched the Circular Economy awards in 2016
Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)-UK: In recent years it brokered a number of voluntary agreements with business including Construction , Retailers, Textiles and Electrical and electronic products.

15. Thanks for your attention