Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference
Dr. Marzena Smol took part in a conference organised for all stakeholders involved in the transition of Europe’s linear economy into a circular economy (CE). The Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference was organised by the Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee on 9-10 March 2017 in Brussels. The Conference was opened by First Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans with opening speech entitled “A sustainable model for the EU and the world”.
The conference provided great opportunity for a comprehensive overview of current and future developments in the transition to CE in Europe. It was emphasized that a more sustainable European economy implies reducing drastically consumption of resources and the amount of produced waste. Far from being an exclusively environmental concern, the transition to more resource-efficient economy is a business and social opportunity, leading to new markets and new jobs. During the conference, the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Georges Dassis stressed that collaboration with stakeholders is one of the most important factor which could help in transition to more circular economy model in Europe. On this occasion the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform was announced for researchers, politicians, policy-makers, producers, businesses and all other stakeholders interested in building CE in Europe.
Dr. Smol was particularly interested in the session “Monitoring Framework on Circular Economy” where Stephan Moll from Eurostat presented speech “Eurostat’s possible contributions to CE monitoring“. Stephan Moll presented criteria for policy indicators related to circular economy, which could be helpful in the development of indicators for measuring a regional circular economy – one of the main research objectives in the POLONEZ project. During coffee/tea breaks all participants were able to exchange their ideas about Circular Economy Action Plan, enjoying drinks and snacks or plan their future professional life and cooperation.
Information about conference are available HERE