I am very happy to have participated in my first Environment Council today. I would like to thank the Hungarian Presidency for the brief but good cooperation. I presented my vision and my priorities to the Ministers. And I look forward to working with the incoming Polish Presidency to lay the ground on our future water resilience strategy and the circular economy act, in particular. We also need to continue the work on pending legislative files, and we have quite a few trilogues. So we will be rather busy! Talking about the circular economy, today in the Council, we had constructive discussions on plastic pollution, end-of-life vehicles and REACH.
Plastic pellets
First, I welcome the general approach reached today by a large majority of Member States on plastic pellets. Microplastic pollution caused by pellets is a big problem. In 2019 alone, between 52 000 and 184 000 tons of pellets were lost to the environment in the EU. And once in the environment, plastic pellets are difficult and costly to clean up. The impact on the environment and on animal life but also on sectors like fisheries, aquaculture and tourism, is enormous. It is also an increasing cause of public concern. I look forward to supporting the upcoming negotiations with the Council and Parliament. And reach an ambitious and workable outcome.
End-of-life vehicles
Second, we exchanged views on the proposed regulation on end-of-life vehicles. We are not yet at a Council position on this file, but the discussion was useful to understand the view points around the table. The Commission proposal from last year replaces two directives that are 20 years old and covers all aspects of a vehicle. It is a regulation that sits very well in the current circularity discussion.
Producing cars requires a lot of resources. The automotive industry in the EU is the N°1 consumer of aluminium (42%), magnesium (44%), platinum group metals (63%), natural rubber (67%) and rare earth elements (30% in 2025, and growing exponentially), and many of these materials are not sourced from Europe. Moving towards more circularity is therefore important both for our environmental footprint and for ensuring Europe's open strategic autonomy. We need to take an approach where we look at the whole life cycle. From design and placement on the market, until the car's final treatment at the end-of-life. Also, circularity will play a major role for the sector to keep its competitive edge in the future. The Commission's proposal will help to boost the resilience of the EU automotive industry and the EU recycling sector. And it will feed directly into the Competitiveness Compass that focuses on innovation, decarbonisation and security. We discussed among other elements:
- the scope of the regulation and what type of vehicles the rules could apply to;
- the target of 25% of recycled plastics in new cars, this is important because very little plastics is recycled from end-of-life cars. And less than 5% of recycled plastics is used in new cars;
- and how to avoid unnecessary administrative burden for SMEs.
REACH
Third, we also held a discussion on REACH. The REACH legislation is by now twenty years old. It was developed by another Commissioner from Sweden at the time. A lot happens in 20 years. We have seen how the procedures work out in practice, and there is clearly scope for more efficiency and speed. There are now gaps in the level of protection of the environment and human health. We know more about chemical substances and their effects today than we did 2 decades ago. As you know, the Commission aims to propose a targeted revision of REACH by the end of 2025. I am working on this together with Stéphane Séjourné. This revision will simplify and modernise the existing rules so that companies can benefit from more predictability and certainty without compromising on the level of protection that our citizens and the environment need. And we want to make sure that authorities are better informed and therefore citizens are better protected against risks for their health when it
comes to daily life products. Making REACH more efficient is the way forward to shape our
competitiveness in a sustainable way.
