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Parliamentary question - E-003865/2018(ASW)Parliamentary question
E-003865/2018(ASW)

Answer given by Ms Bieńkowska on behalf of the European Commission

1. The Commission has currently no intention to revise the Ecodesign Directive. The preparation of Commission proposals involves all relevant services, in line with Better Regulation principles and its Guidelines.

2. The 2012 and 2015 reviews of the directive confirmed that it is still fit for purpose. The current legal framework does not prevent measures beyond energy efficiency and can substantially contribute to circular economy objectives. In the Ecodesign Working Plan 2016-2019, the Commission committed to systematically consider circular economy aspects such as durability, reparability and recyclability when revising existing implementing measures or preparing new measures, and to update its methodology for this purpose.

3. As part of the package on the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission proposes to introduce a new own resource in the form of a national contribution based on the amount of plastic packaging waste that is not recycled. This initiative is intended to generate budgetary revenue but also to contribute to the objectives of the circular economy in a broader sense by providing incentives for the Member States to take measures to reduce the amount plastic packaging and/or increase recycling rates.

The Commission proposals for the new Cohesion Policy beyond 2020 aim to fully support the new and ambitious circular economy and waste targets to maximise recycling and minimise landfilling in Europe.

Furthermore, the new Horizon Europe programme includes a specific ‘Digital and Industry’ cluster with a specific intervention area for ‘circular industry’. Equally, the ‘Food and natural resources’ cluster includes the ‘circular systems” intervention area’.

On top of that, building on the success of the European Fund for Strategic Investments in catalysing private investments throughout Europe, the Commission proposed to set up a new, fully integrated investment fund, InvestEU.

The Fund will target investments promoting sustainable projects, including those basing their business logic on circularity.

Last updated: 15 October 2018
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