On 31 March 2025, the European Commission opened a public consultation titled “Towards a circular, regenerative and competitive bioeconomy”. The initiative aims to offer solutions for a circular and climate neutral economy and boost competitiveness within planetary boundaries by helping citizens, regions and key economic sectors make the best and most sustainable use of biomass. The results of the public consultation will be used to build a new bioeconomy strategy expected for the end of 2025, to complement the Competitiveness Compass and the Clean Industrial Deal.
European Standards can play a vital role in meeting Europe’s ambitions for Bioeconomy by providing the technical guidance needed to implement the practical changes to transform these ambitions into reality. To fully realize this potential, CEN asks the European Commission to:
- apply standards consistently in future legislation, including in the Bioeconomy strategy, to promote long-term competitiveness;
- recognize the value of horizontal standards and terminology to help to create a level playing field between sectors as well as trustworthy claims;
- harness the full benefits of European standards and the unique advantages of the Vienna agreement to position the European bioeconomy sector in the international markets.
CEN remains committed to the use of standardization as a tool to achieve and support the Clean Industrial Deal. The creation of the Bioeconomy Strategy provides an opportunity to utilize standards to ensure its successful implementation across the Single Market.
The CEN response submitted can be found on the website of the European Commission here and the full CEN response is available here.
