Last December the European Commission presented the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy. Secretary of the Environment of The Netherlands, Sharon Dijksma, gave a guest lecture at the University of Utrecht on 6 June on this subject.
In her lecture she said, amongst others:
Last month [June] the EU member states will be discussing the Plan in the Environmental Council. At the moment, the Netherlands holds the EU Presidency.
In my role as Chair of the Environmental Council, I hope we can speed up the Action Plan, so that we can make real strides with the circular economy.
[We] need to come up with rules that will foster good initiatives, without creating a jungle of new laws.
The Plan offers worthwhile strategies, for instance a revised Regulation on fertilizers (to facilitate the recognition of organic and waste-based fertilizers), a series of actions on water reuse and the disbursement of millions of euros in subsidies, amongst others for economic incentives for producers to put greener products on the market.
Curiously enough the most efficient way to encourage the production of greener products was not mentioned: Raising the price of carbon emissions by lowering the cap of the cap-and-trade system known as The EU Emissions Trading System.