The European Parliament is scheduled to adopt a resolution on the EU Commission’s work programme on 15 January. A group of European industry and environmental associations has called upon the members of the Parliament to urge the the EU authority in their resolution to proceed with the ongoing legislative process for the circular economy package. The Commission had announced plans in December to withdraw the package in order to table a new proposal on waste legislation and the circular economy.
“A withdrawal of the package would represent a missed opportunity and a significant delay to its eventual implementation,” according to the group of 14 associations. Its members include the European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD), the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management (ACR+) and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).
In their opinion, moving the existing proposal through the legislative procedure involving the EU Parliament and the Council “is the most appropriate way to produce better legislation in this field”. Additional measures to raise its level of ambition, as alluded to by the new Commission, could be integrated through amendments to the existing texts, they argue. By contrast, a “withdrawing and re-tabling the proposal could lead to unnecessary and harmful regulatory uncertainty, a waste of the EU institutions’ resources and, above all, a delay in the actions and investments required by private and public entities”.
