Politics

President von der Leyen has convened key European industry leaders, social partners, and stakeholders for the launch of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Steel sector. This dialogue marks the start of an inclusive and collaborative process to address critical challenges faced by the sector and ensure its continued success as a key driver of the European economy.

With the Clean Industrial Deal (CID), the European Commission is strengthening its decarbonization strategy and emphasizing the importance of European raw materials as well as climate protection and the circular economy. The Commission also wants to specifically promote research and innovation. The FEhS Building Materials Institute believes that the planned measures, which would also effectively support the use of by-products from the steel industry, are the right ones.

The European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) have published the second Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook report, which provides an overview of the EU’s work to meet the 2030 zero pollution targets. The Commission has also published its fourth Clean Air Outlook report. The reports show that EU policies have contributed to reducing air pollution, pesticide use and plastic litter at sea. However, pollution levels are still too high, in particular from harmful noise, microplastic releases into the environment, nutrient pollution and waste generation.

Ahead of the inaugural Strategic Dialogue on Steel and the upcoming Steel and Metals Action Plan, EuRIC, the voice of Europe’s recyclers has published a Circular Economy Action Plan for Recycled Metals to steer discussions on the future of the steel industry through the lens of decarbonisation and circularity.

Today, the Commission has presented the Clean Industrial Deal, a business plan to support the competitiveness and resilience of our industry. The Deal will accelerate decarbonisation, while securing the future of manufacturing in Europe.

EuRIC welcomes the provisional agreement on the targeted revision of the Waste Framework Directive (WFD), reached by the European Parliament and Council on 19 February, as it marks a significant step forward for the circular economy and textile waste management. However, urgent support is still required to address the unprecedented crisis currently facing the EU’s textile reuse and recycling sector.

Despite steady progress in key areas, the European Union is only partially on track to achieve the EU’s 2030 climate, environment and sustainability objectives, according to the latest monitoring report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA). More decisive measures are needed to boost a circular economy, reverse the declining trend in biodiversity and in reducing the EU’s consumption footprint.

The European Parliament’s draft report on the End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) Regulation, currently discussed, raises serious concerns about its impact on circularity in the automotive sector.

The new EU Waste Shipment Regulation WS threatens to disrupt global recycling markets and put Europe’s recycling industry at a severe competitive disadvantage. EuRIC calls for an immediate extension of the WSR deadlines to provide non-OECD countries with adequate time to comply and prevent a catastrophic impact on international trade in recycled materials and the competitiveness of the EU recycling industry.

FEAD welcomes the publication of the European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass, a strategic tool that will guide the work in the coming years and aims to strengthen the European Union’s competitive edge in a rapidly changing global economy.

An alliance of companies and associations from the plastics, packaging, consumer goods and recycling industries, has called on the European Commission to urgently implement existing as well as introduce legal mechanisms to control and certify imports of recycled plastics.