Europe’s Circular Economy Act is due to be adopted before the end of 2026, and 16 young people have now handed the Commission their list of what it should contain. Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall received their recommendations in a meeting on Monday, 31 August.
The group had helped shape the Commission’s Youth Check on the act. It first met Roswall at the annual conference of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform in April, and a team of youth representatives spent the months since writing a Youth Position Paper. The youth organisations Academics for Circular Economy and Generation Climate Europe coordinated it.
Their message is that the act should do more than manage waste. The paper asks for more efficient use of resources, products that are easier to repair and reuse, and safe, high-quality secondary materials. It also wants the shift to stay affordable and fair, with investment in circular skills and real youth involvement while the rules are put into practice.
Roswall called young people “essential partners” in shaping the transition. “I am happy to receive their ambitious recommendations today, which will help inform our work as we prepare the Circular Economy Act,” she said.
The youth representatives said they had seen “what effective and tangible youth input can look like in policy-making.” The act, they added, “will set the framework for a future that we, as young people, will feel the effect of.”
What the act is for
The Commission says the act aims to speed up the move to a circular economy, which it expects to strengthen the EU’s economic security, resilience, competitiveness and decarbonisation. For business, the draft is meant to improve the case for circularity by easing the movement of recycled products, materials and waste across borders in Europe. It should also raise both supply of and demand for high-quality recycled materials in the EU.
The Youth Check drew on an online consultation of people aged 15 to 29, a youth session at the April conference and further exchanges with youth stakeholders. Its paper will feed into the impact assessment for the act under the Commission’s Better Regulation Guidelines.
