The Juncker Commission, after having received numerous criticisms for having suspended from the 2015 Programme the review of the Guidelines on Waste, an integral part of the Circular Economy Package, has begun a public consultation – which will remain open until 20 August 2015 – to collect opinions on the strategy to be adopted to set up, in a new and ambitious way, the transition to the circular economy.
After numerous criticisms expressed by green economy businesses and environmental associations and organisations, but in particular by institutional bodies such as the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions and by some Member Countries, the EU Commission seems to want to reconsider the planned position it formally took on 16 December 2014 to suspend the Circular Economy Package for 2015.
On 2 July 2014 the previous Barroso Commission had adopted a Message «Towards a circular Economy», with the aim of developing a more circular economy. The review of the six Guidelines on waste to promote recycling in the Member States was an essential part of this, making Europe more competitive through the reduction of the demand for ever scarcer and costlier resources, and at the same time creating two million new jobs. Now, the EU Commission decision to begin a public consultation seems to indicate that they want to present, as soon as possible and by the end of the year, a new Strategy, including the proposed legislative review on waste and the indication of an action plan for circular economy, which concerns the whole chain of values and concrete measures with a clear added value.