DEMAND | PRODUCT POLICY | CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Circular markets for industrial value creation "Made in Europe“ Claims of the BDI Initiative Circular Economy for the 2024 European election
7 May 2024
1.
Realignment of the framework conditions for circular value creation
Since 2014, the further development of the circular economy has been a political priority of the European Union (EU). Under the first Circular Economy Action Plan of 2015, numerous EU waste directives were amended (including the Waste Framework Directive, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, the Landfill Directive and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive). Furthermore, the development of functioning markets for plastics from the circular economy was politically prioritised for the first time (including the Directive on Single-Use Plastics, industrial pledges for the use of recycled plastics). With the EU's Green Deal from 2019 to 2024, circular value creation was politically upgraded once again. Since then, the aim has been to focus on the importance of circular value creation as an elementary contribution to the secure supply of raw materials for industry, to create the conditions for building more resilient value creation networks, to increase innovative strength in Europe and to reduce CO2 emissions. The second Circular Economy Action Plan of 2020 focused on the requirements for products. With the adoption of an Ecodesign Regulation with a broad scope of application and as a framework for circular products, a Battery Regulation, a Packaging Regulation, a Construction Products Regulation, a Regulation on the supply of critical raw materials to the EU (Critical Raw Materials Act), a Directive on claims for the repair of certain products, a Directive on product-related environmental claims (Green Claims), which is still in the legislative process, and a legislative process for an End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation, the framework conditions for production, products and circular economy raw materials in the European internal market will change fundamentally in the coming years. At the same time, the rules for cross-border waste
Dr Claas Oehlmann | Initiative Circular Economy | T: +49 30 2028-1606 | c.oehlmann@ice.bdi.eu | www.bdi.eu