27 August 2015
Meeting on Circular Economy
at the cabinet of VicePresident Jyrki Katainen for
Jobs, Growth, Investments
and Competitiveness
Rue du Luxembourg 47-51,
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 706 40 80
Fax: +32 (0) 2 706 40 81
secretariat@eureau.org
Date: 27 August 2015
Place: Brussels
Participants:
~ Heidi Jern (Member of cabinet VP Katainen working on Green growth,
Energy Union, transport, justice, in charge of Circular Economy)
EurEau representative:
~ Bruno Tisserand, President
~ Bertrand Vallet, policy officer
1. Presentation of the cabinet work
The new proposal is co-responsibility of 4 cabinets:
~
VP Katainen: coordination; main focus jobs and growth
~
VP Timmermans: better regulation
~
Commissioner Vella: Environment
~
Commissioner Bieńkowska: Internal Market, Industry,
Entrepreneurship and SMEs
The public consultation was closed at the beginning of August with around
1500 responses. Many Directorates are involved in studying the answers. The
Commission should come-up with an action plan for the end of 2015 which
will focus on legislative instruments and guidelines and funding opportunities.
The preference will be for market based mechanisms more than constraints
imposed by regulation. There will not be any stakeholder meetings before the
action plan is published. However, after publication, stakeholders will be
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asked to participate in the development of the different files proposed.
2. EurEau message
Water services’ priorities are to treat raw water to produce drinking water and
to treat wastewater to protect the environment. Through wastewater
treatment, we generate waste that had until now 3 main routes: reuse of
sludge under different forms, landfilling and incineration.
Currently, wastewater products are low value because there are no
substantial markets for them. Also, recovery costs are high, as are
transportation costs, which affects the value even further.
However, there is no doubt that use wastewater products like biosolids or
struvite is resource efficient and therefore makes a positive contribution to
economies at a local and regional level. The water sector is keen to develop
recycling options if they are sustainable and don’t charge additional costs to
people’s water bills.
The European Commission can help the water industry by defining minimum
standards at European level that can help to secure both markets, the
Environment and health of citizens. This standards should bring quality
criteria that allow our recovered products (sludge based products, water,
energy) to enter in recycling schemes without discrimination compared to raw
materials or other source of resources and at an affordable price (at least
neutral). It often means the necessity to create incentives that can help
secondary raw material to be competitive against primary resources.
3. General comments
~
The Commission’s work seems to be in line with our proposals. It plans
to consider the existing projects like the guidance for water reuse and
the fertiliser regulation. The End of Waste criteria is under discussion
but is also much broader and complicated with different type of waste
(solid, liquid…)
~
It was very good to be able to discuss with the people responsible for
the overview of the new proposal and we will have to discuss more in
the future with the DGs responsible for the specific developments (we
already have the contacts).
~
The Commission understands the complexity of creating a competition
with the primary raw materials and want to support this idea, but not
necessarily by direct financing instruments.
4. Next steps for EurEau
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Follow-up on the Circular Economy proposal by the end of the year
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Continue the contact with the DGs responsible for the water reuse and
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the fertiliser regulation instruments.
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Keep contact with cabinet of VP Katainen if they need more
information.
About EurEau
EurEau is the voice of Europe’s water sector. With a direct employment of
around 500,000 people, the European water sector makes a significant
contribution to the European economy.
EurEau represents drinking water and waste water service providers from 27
countries in Europe, from both the private and the public sector. Our
members are the national associations of water services in Europe.
At EurEau we bring national water professionals together to agree European
water industry positions regarding the management of water quality, resource
efficiency and access to water for Europe’s citizens and businesses.
Rue du Luxembourg 47-51,
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel : +32 (0)2 706 40 80
Fax : +32 (0) 2 706 40 81
secretariat@eureau.org
www.eureau.org
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