El pasado 28 de mayo, la Comisión Europea inició una Consulta pública sobre Economía Circular. Pueden enviarse comentarios y aportaciones hasta el 4 de septiembre de 2015.
Esta consulta es parte de la estrategia sobre economía circular que la Comisión pretende publicar a finales de este año 2015. Su objetivo es transformar Europa en una economía más competitiva y eficiente en el uso de recursos, abarcando un amplio abanico de sectores económicos, incluyendo el de los residuos. La estrategia comprenderá una propuesta legislativa revisada sobre los residuos y una comunicación que establecerá un plan de acción sobre la economía circular para lo que resta de mandato de esta Comisión.
La Comisión estableció la finalidad de la consulta tal y como sigue: “In January 2015, the Commission launched a study to examine obstacles and regulatory failures affecting the functioning of waste markets in the European Union (Tender ENV.A.2/ETU/2014/26, The efficient functioning of waste markets in the European Union – legislative and policy options). The EU’s waste management industry has a high potential for growth and job creation. In order to fulfil such potential and facilitate the transition towards a more Circular Economy, it is important to deepen our understanding of EU waste markets, focusing in particular on possible regulatory failures. According to existing rules, waste to be prepared for re-use, recycled or subject to other recovery activities should move freely within the EU, without any unjustified restrictions. In line with Article 12 of the Waste Shipment Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on shipments of waste, OJ L 190, 12.7.2006, p.1), only certain specific reasons may be used to restrict the free movement of waste for recycling and recovery (e.g. that the person shipping the waste has previously been convicted of illegal shipments). In some cases, however, the regulatory environment may hamper the efficient functioning of waste markets and fail to ensure optimal implementation of the waste hierarchy (according to Article 4(1) of the EU waste framework directive, the following waste hierarchy shall apply as a priority order: prevention; preparing for re-use; recycling; other recovery, e.g. energy recovery; and disposal). Such regulatory failures may result from policy and legislative actions taken at EU, national, regional or local levels. Some may arise in connection with the application and interpretation of EU legal requirements (e.g. the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste, OJ L 312, 22.11.2008, p.3) or the Waste Shipment Regulation); others may be the result of national, regional or local rules and requirements which are not directly linked to EU legislation. Within the context of this consultation both types of regulatory failures are considered (see parts B and C of the questionnaire). The goal of this consultation is to obtain a better understanding of the nature and the extent of regulatory failures causing undue distortions to EU waste markets for recycling and recovery. The information gathered will contribute to the finalisation of the above-mentioned study and will be taken into consideration in preparation of the new initiative on the ‘Circular Economy’. Please note that a broader public consultation on Circular Economy was launched on 28 May.”