On 29th September, ALDA, represented by Mr. Mattia Brazzale, Assistant to the Secretary General’s office attended the conference: “Closing the loop in the Circular Economy: contributions and expectations from Europe’s local and regional authorities”, organised in Brussels by the Committee of the Regions.
The conference looked at what meant for LRAs to act as key players in the circular economy, and the Committee of the Regions sought to contribute to European Commission’s new circular economy roadmap, proposing some contribution in the field of waste management. Europe’s commitment for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth requires a more comprehensive and holistic approach in the field of environment protection field. Waste management was identified as one of the most important issues to closing the loop and ultimately reaching the goal of a circular and self-sustainable economy.
Amongst the speakers of the conference, there were Mrs Sirpa Hertell, Vice-chair of the CoR Commission for Environment (ENVE), Mr. Michel Lebrun, former President of the Committee of the Region and former Minister of Wallonia Region (Belgium), Mr. Cuno van Geet, Senior Policy Advisor of Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, as well as other representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the CEMR, and other international networks working on the topic.
As far as waste management is concerned, local authorities have a key role to play because of the link they represent between citizens and producers. It does not concern only the collection of municipal waste, but also the production and consumption of goods. In these fields, cooperation and exchange of experience and best practices among LAs represent a central keystone and can assume a major role to tackling the challenges that different communities are nowadays facing.
The EU-funded project WE-NET: Working for ENvironmentally Educated Towns heads precisely in this direction. The initiative is supported by the Europe for Citizens programme and will bring together and establish a network of municipalities from across Europe in order to work together on a common goal, facilitating knowledge exchange and building up a basis of further communication and cooperation on waste management and recycling. The first international event will be taking place in Thiene (Vicenza), Italy from 12th to 15th November 2015.
On 29th September, ALDA, represented by Mr. Mattia Brazzale, Assistant to the Secretary General’s office attended the conference: “Closing the loop in the Circular Economy: contributions and expectations from Europe’s local and regional authorities”, organised in Brussels by the Committee of the Regions.
The conference looked at what meant for LRAs to act as key players in the circular economy, and the Committee of the Regions sought to contribute to European Commission’s new circular economy roadmap, proposing some contribution in the field of waste management. Europe’s commitment for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth requires a more comprehensive and holistic approach in the field of environment protection field. Waste management was identified as one of the most important issues to closing the loop and ultimately reaching the goal of a circular and self-sustainable economy.
Amongst the speakers of the conference, there were Mrs Sirpa Hertell, Vice-chair of the CoR Commission for Environment (ENVE), Mr. Michel Lebrun, former President of the Committee of the Region and former Minister of Wallonia Region (Belgium), Mr. Cuno van Geet, Senior Policy Advisor of Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, as well as other representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the CEMR, and other international networks working on the topic.
As far as waste management is concerned, local authorities have a key role to play because of the link they represent between citizens and producers. It does not concern only the collection of municipal waste, but also the production and consumption of goods. In these fields, cooperation and exchange of experience and best practices among LAs represent a central keystone and can assume a major role to tackling the challenges that different communities are nowadays facing.
The EU-funded project WE-NET: Working for ENvironmentally Educated Towns heads precisely in this direction. The initiative is supported by the Europe for Citizens programme and will bring together and establish a network of municipalities from across Europe in order to work together on a common goal, facilitating knowledge exchange and building up a basis of further communication and cooperation on waste management and recycling. The first international event will be taking place in Thiene (Vicenza), Italy from 12th to 15th November 2015.