Conference
Closing the loop in the Circular Economy: contributions and
expectations from Europe's local and regional authorities
Organised by Committee of the Regions, ENVE Commission
Tuesday 29 September 2015, 9.00 – 13.00
Committee of the Regions, room JDE 52, Rue Belliard 101, 1040 Brussels
Building on the Committee of the Regions' opinion on the circular economy and the review of
waste legislation of February 2015, the Committee of the Regions seeks to contribute with
this conference to the European Commission’s’ preparations of its new circular economy
roadmap and proposal amending waste legislation.
The European Commission has announced the new initiative and proposal to be improved
and to be more ambitious than the previous ones which it withdrew beginning of this year,
by aiming also at covering more coherently all phases of a circular economy.
The conference will look at what does this mean for local and regional authorities as key
players in a circular economy. What do they expect from and how do they already contribute
to possible new initiatives in the production and consumption phase and for stimulating
markets? What role do they see for recycling targets, waste prevention and economic
instruments in municipal waste management to support an ambitious EU policy?
9.00
Setting the scene
Sirpa Hertell, Vice-Chair of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) Commission for
Environment, Climate Change and Energy, City Councillor of Espoo, Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen, MEP (FI/EPP), European Parliament rapporteur on" Resource efficiency:
moving towards a circular economy"
Peter Handley, Head of Unit Resource Efficiency, Secretariat-General of the European
Commission
COR-2015-04561-00-01-TCD-TRA
9.30
Stimulating markets and changing the production and consumption towards
a circular economy - contributions and expectations from Europe's local and
regional authorities
Moderator: Andres Jaadla, CoR member, Member of Rakvere City Council, Estonia
Closing the loop in the circular economy: EU action on production, consumption and
stimulating markets
Fulvia Raffaelli, acting Head of Unit Clean Technologies and Products, DG Internal Market,
Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
EU measures to improve product design and stimulate markets for recovered materials
Vanya Veras, Secretary General, Municipal Waste Europe
Green public procurement to stimulate a circular economy – local examples and
expectations from the EU
Cuno van Geet, Senior policy advisor for sustainability, Ministry of Infrastructure and the
Environment, Netherlands
 Debate
11.00
Ambitious municipal waste management:
the role of targets and economic instruments
Moderator: Michel Lebrun, CoR rapporteur on "A resource efficient Europe " and "The
review of the EU's key waste targets"
Municipal waste management: closing the implementation gap
Kestutis Sadaukas, Director Green Economy, DG Environment, European Commission
Promoting economic instruments in waste management –which support from the EU?
Linda Gillham, Spokesperson on environment of the Council of European Municipalities
and Regions (CEMR) and member of the CEMR Expert Group on Waste, Councillor for
Runnymede, UK
More ambitious recycling targets for municipal waste, municipalities' capacities and the
recycling market – how they can go together
Françoise Bonnet, Secretary General ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling
and sustainable Resource management
 Debate
12.30
Conclusions and outlook
Sirpa Hertell, Vice-Chair of the CoR ENVE Commission
12.45
End of the conference
Interpretation (tbc):
participants may speak in: EN/FR/DE/IT/ES/PL/HU/RO/ET/LT
participants may listen in: EN/FR/DE/IT/ES/PL/HU/ET
COR-2015-04561-00-01-TCD-TRA