Standards are a proven instrument to operationalize EU legislation while reducing regulatory burdens and supporting SMEs. By building on the New Legislative Framework (NLF), the CEA can rely on harmonized standards to provide presumption of conformity with legal requirements, while leaving room for innovation. The consultation has identified barriers to a more integrated circular economy, including divergent classifications of waste and secondary raw materials, weak competitiveness of recyclates, insufficient transparency on recyclability and material composition, and resource loss due to inefficient collection, sorting and data gaps. Today, divergent national practices undermine the single market. Standards can directly address these challenges by establishing common definitions, quality criteria and testing methods across Europe.
CEN (the European Committee for Standardization) and CENELEC (the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization), as the recognized European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), welcome the European Commission’s initiative for a Circular Economy Act (CEA). Harmonized standards are essential to reach the ambitions of the CEA to build a genuine single market for secondary raw materials and circular products. We are committed to working with EU institutions and stakeholders to accelerate Europe’s transition to a sustainable, circular and resilient economy.
Within the CEA, standards also contribute to:
- Reducing legal and market fragmentation;
- Enhancing trust in secondary raw materials through quality and safety criteria;
- Enabling traceability and reliable data exchange;
- Supporting life-cycle and environmental performance assessment;
- Facilitating innovation and competitiveness in line with EU policy objectives.
To deliver on its ambition of a stronger, more integrated circular economy, the CEA should explicitly recognize the role of standardization and leverage harmonized European standards. A list of concrete recommendations can be found on page 4. CEN and CENELEC stand ready to support the CEA through the development of European and international standards that foster trust, interoperability, and innovation.
Carolina MÜLLER
cmueller@cencenelec.eu
