36 Amendments of Nicolás GONZÁLEZ CASARES related to 2020/2077(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A a (new)
Recital -A a (new)
- Aa. whereas the principles of circular economy should be the core element of any European and national industrial policy as well as of Member States national Recovery and Resilience Plans in the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A b (new)
Recital -A b (new)
- Ab. whereas almost a quarter of SMEs in Europe already enable the transition towards more sustainable business models but, on the other hand, a third of them report that they face complex administrative and legal procedures when trying to make their business more resource-efficient;
Amendment 3 #
-Ac. whereas the Communication from the Commission acknowledges the pioneering role of social economy enterprises in the creation of jobs linked to the circular economy;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A d (new)
Recital -A d (new)
-Ad. whereas a circular economy has proven to be essential during the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular in sectors such as food and pharmaceutical packaging, waste collection and treatment;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to review Directive 2009/125/EC; stressebelieves that a wider ecodesign policy can be one of the core elements of the European action in the field of circular economy; stresses nevertheless that broadening its scope should not lead to any watering down of the results achieved in the field of energy efficiency;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
— having regard to the Commission communication of 11 December 2019 on ‘The European Green Deal’ (COM(2019)0640),
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 b (new)
Citation 10 b (new)
— having regard to the Commission communication of 14 October 2020 on “Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability: Towards a Toxic-Free Environment” (COM(2020)0667),
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Believes that research priorities in the field of circular economy should mainly look at carbon neutral and zero- carbon technologies;
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Commission to step up its efforts to make more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fit for the circular economy, by supporting them through adequate incentive schemes and financing tools, capacity building, also in terms of managerial skills, and technical assistance, as well as by reducing their administrative and legal burdens;
Amendment 108 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Supports the European Commission’s initiative to ensure that the EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities will be more open to SMEs and increase their opportunity to participate in local innovation ecosystem to the benefit of digital and green transition;
Amendment 121 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Stresses that construction is among the least automated and digitized sectors and the most resource-intensive businesses in the European Union. The use of innovative and future-oriented technologies at a construction site would increase the degree of digitisation of the sector while increasing resources efficiency. Similarly, the adoption of digital solution in built environment would allow better energy performance of buildings;
Amendment 124 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Also believes that the use of sustainable circular bio-based products and systems in the construction and renovation sectors can help achieving the Union's environmental objectives through the development of a regulatory framework for recognition of carbon removals as well as through the elaboration of Green Public Procurement binding rules to enable users to choose sustainable and climate friendly materials and secondary raw material;
Amendment 125 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Recalls that the “energy efficiency first” principle should always apply when evaluating different solutions and applications;
Amendment 126 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5d. Underlines the importance of incentivising the procurement of recyclable materials and the use of secondary raw materials also as a tool to ensure the Union's industrial autonomy and to keep jobs in the manufacturing sector;
Amendment 135 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Asks the Commission to support a digital transition that builds on maximising the value of data and deploying digitally- enabled solutions to permit the sustainable use of resources and to maintain the value, durability, reusability and repairability of products and materials for as long as possible.
Amendment 144 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on the Commission to invest in connectivity and digital infrastructures, promoting solutions that contribute to a lower carbon footprint and reduced use of natural resources and materials, and that guarantee the sustainability of the manufacturing life cycle and the extension of product life cycle.
Amendment 153 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Asks the Commission to invest in developing KPIs connected to SDGs, in order to achieve a more sustainable business model for European industry; in particular, calls on the Commission to promote and strengthen partnerships between different industrial sectors and between public and private sectors, fully implementing SDG 17;
Amendment 295 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Encourages the Commission to propose resource efficiency and environmental footprint targets for each product category and to introduce product- specific targets for recycled content, while ensuring the performance and safety, safety and design for recycling of the products concerned;
Amendment 374 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Supports the planned initiatives to improve the durability and reparability of products in accordance with the waste hierarchy while strengthening consumer rights in both B2C and B2B markets; therefore welcomes the planned initiative for a ‘right to repair’;
Amendment 411 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Underlines the need to promote high-quality and low carbon recycling and to maintain clean and sustainable closed material loops, taking into account the material’s ability to maintain its inherent properties after recycling and its ability to replace virgin raw materials in future applications;
Amendment 435 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Urges the Commission and the Member States to support the development of new innovative technologies, in particular enhanced recycling, and digital technologies such as blockchain and digital watermarking that can support the development of the circular economy through the tracking, tracing and mapping of resources;
Amendment 492 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Supports the Circular Electronics Initiative, which will address the shortcomings in durability, reusability, reparability, circular design, waste prevention, and waste collection and recycling; calls for the harmonisation of recycling infrastructure for waste electrical and electronic equipment in the EU;
Amendment 501 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Calls on the Commission to tackle planned obsolescence and artificial end- of-life software support models and to take the necessary measures to end any monopolisation of end of life software in order to encourage circularity;
Amendment 597 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Underlines the essential role of packaging for preservation, product safety, in particular food safety, and hygiene; asks the industry, however, to commit to reducing the amount of packaging it produces and to develop more efficient and circular packaging solutions, and encourages initiatives to improve the collection, sorting and recycling of packaging such as the Circular Plastics Alliance;
Amendment 651 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Calls on the Commission to address contamination of all primary micro-plastics along the plastics supply chain, including pre-production plastic pellets, as they also represent a major source of micro-plastic contamination;
Amendment 774 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Highlights the important role of bio-based and organically recyclable products, including a better recovery of biowaste, in the transition to a circular carbon-neutral economy;
Amendment 788 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29a. Highlights the importance of raising awareness on the proper use of bio-based and bio-degradable plastics that, despite being offered as a solution, are often applied as single-use materials with negative environmental impacts similar to conventional plastics, particularly in the oceans;
Amendment 824 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Underlines the importance of prioritising waste prevention, in line with the EU waste hierarchy, and calls on the Commission to propose specific binding waste reduction targets and targets to cap the generation of residual waste, while ensuring the quality of the waste that is collected separately;
Amendment 832 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31a. Highlights that Extended Producer Responsibility is an important tool that helps Member States to move towards prevention and more sustainable waste management; asks the Commission to assist Member States in adequately transposing, implementing, monitoring and enforcing waste legislation, including through information exchange programmes;
Amendment 837 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 b (new)
Paragraph 31 b (new)
31b. Underlines that the quality of water resources rely on a good implementation of control at source and polluter pays principle; calls for a circular economy based on an environmentally sound regulatory framework to avoid possible negative toxic effects on aquatic ecosystems;
Amendment 839 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 c (new)
Paragraph 31 c (new)
31c. Highlights that a large spectrum of resources can be recovered from wastewater, ranging from cellulose via bioplastics to nutrients, energy and water, and from drinking water treatment processes, like calcium carbonate;
Amendment 841 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 d (new)
Paragraph 31 d (new)
31d. Highlights that the zero pollution ambition should serve to reduce the discharge of polluting substances in sewers and protect the quality of resources recovered from wastewater;
Amendment 853 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Believes that non-competitive prices and a lack of secondary raw materials are among the main barriers to a circular economy; asks the Commission to assess measures to make secondary raw materials, by-products, and recyclable materials more competitive, such as economic incentives, including rewards for CO2 savings, tax measures, public procurement and the further application of extended producer responsibility;
Amendment 906 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 a (new)
Paragraph 34 a (new)
34a. Stresses the need to build waste strategies and policies on robust scientific data and methodologies, improving the reliability and comparability of EU statistics;
Amendment 910 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 b (new)
Paragraph 34 b (new)
34b. Encourages the Commission to establish a best-practice sharing platform that can help assess waste policy implementation and build a robust repository of information and tools in the field of waste management and EPR;
Amendment 913 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 c (new)
Paragraph 34 c (new)
34c. Highlights the potential of environmental and green taxes to gradually shift the tax burden on labour to the use of non-renewable energy and primary raw materials; regrets the fact that as long as primary raw materials are cheaper than reused goods or secondary raw materials, policy interventions for a more circular economy will have little impact; calls therefore for increased use of environmental taxation;