The European Semester provides a structure to coordinate the economic policies of the European Union. In this framework, EU countries discuss their economic and budgetary plans, while monitoring their progress throughout the year. The European Semester consists of an...
55 % of procurement procedures still use the lowest price as the only award criterion [1], without considering any potential added social or environmental value they could support through making purchase choices between competing products or services. With public...
On 18 January 2018, the European Commission published proposals to revise the current VAT directive, part of an effort to create a harmonised and simplified VAT system across the EU. The proposals are now under the scrutiny of the European Parliament which is set to...
As part of the European Commission’s Circular Economy Package, a number of EU waste laws have recently been updated with Member States having until 4th July 2020 to transpose the new provisions into their national legal frameworks. These include EU Directives on...
National Reform Programmes 2018 The European Semester aims at contributing to the coordination of economic policies across the European Union (EU). Within the European Semester [1] process, National Reform Programmes (NRPs) [2] are published by Member States each...
In Europe 77% of citizens would be willing to have their goods repaired but hardly ever do because it is too expensive for them to do so [1]. Re-use and repair activities need to be made cheaper in order for Europe to keep the value of products and prevent wasting...
In 2014, the trade of used clothes, a global commodity, was around 4.2 million tonnes with a value of 4.4bn Dollars (1). Whilst historically the collection of used clothes has been associated with charitable and...
Setting binding targets for preparing for re-use at EU level amongst the 10 key steps to get the circular economy package on track. We call on the EU Parliament and Member States to put second-hand first Download the full pdf here ...
In December 2015, the European Commission relaunched a strategy for moving Europe towards a ‘Circular Economy’ which includes a set of legislative proposals to revise key EU waste laws. It is critically important that re-use of unwanted but re-usable goods is the top...
A new briefing from RREUSE shows that the job creation potential of the re-use sector is significantly higher than recycling, incineration and landfill. The report cites US figures showing that for 10,000 tonnes of waste products and materials, 1 job would be created...
In response to the European Commission’s recent consultation on a new Circular Economy package, RREUSE has published an analysis of how EU policy could be better implemented to ensure products entering the EU market are easily and cheaply repairable. Michal Len,...
We want the EU to put re-use and repair at the heart of the new circular economy legislation, to be published later this year. Putting second hand first with concrete action and targets, beyond recycling, will be a major boost for the economy, society and the...