The European Parliament adopted by 479 votes to 66, with 63 abstentions, a resolution on a resource-efficient Europe in response to a Commission communication on the same subject.

The current economic, financial and environmental crisis shows that Europe urgently needs new sources of sustainable economic growth . The Eurobarometer of March 2011 shows that resource efficiency and sustainable production and consumption are key concerns of EU citizens.

1. Priority actions : Parliament calls on Commission and the Council to:

establish Joint Task Forces for the three key areas of food and drink, housing, and mobility in order to develop, as soon as possible, European Resource Efficiency Action Plans; remove the obstacles to a functioning European market in recycling and reuse , and to stimulate such a market by fostering the demand for and availability of recycled materials and by-products, through measures which should include the swift further development of stringent end-of-waste criteria and economic incentives, such as reduced VAT rates for secondary materials; boost research and technological innovation in order to speed up the transition to a resource-efficient economy. The Commission is invited to set up an easily accessible, online ‘best practice’ data bank for resource efficiency; agree, by 2013, on clear, robust and measurable indicators for economic activity that take account of climate change, biodiversity and resource efficiency from a life-cycle perspective and to use these indicators as a basis for legislative initiatives and concrete reduction targets; integrate the resource efficiency agenda as comprehensively as possible into all other policies, including the overarching economic governance policies such as Europe 2020, and to implement it at local, regional, national, and EU level.

2. Agenda for future growth : Parliament endorses the Flagship Initiative on a Resource Efficient Europe and the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe and its 2050 vision. It calls on the Commission to put forward swiftly all legislative and other initiatives that are necessary to achieve the milestones and to ensure that all EU policies are coherently aligned to them and to the overall EU vision for creating a low-carbon economy by 2050, by, inter alia, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% compared to 1990 levels.

The resolution recalls that decoupling economic growth from resource consumption is essential for improving Europe’s competitiveness and reducing its resource dependency. It calls on the Commission to propose, by the end of 2012 , a new Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) policy framework, establishing a process for identifying the priority products or services which contribute the most to the key global consumption areas (water, land, materials and carbon).

Members also underline the urgent need to act now in order to support innovation and investment in new techniques and business models, including sectoral industrial strategies and sustainable business models such as a leasing society, and to create the incentives that will bring benefits for the economy.

3. Transforming the economy : Parliament recalls that a reduction in resource use is urgently needed in order to avoid upcoming problems such as resource scarcity and rising resource prices. It considers that for the transition to a resource-efficient economy to be realised, market prices need to fully reflect the degree of resource scarcity , as well as all costs entailed in the production process. Members urge the Commission to research the development of a hierarchy model with a view to ensuring the highest added value of resource use without compromising the environment.

The Commission and the Member States are invited to:

develop incentives that encourage companies and public bodies to measure, benchmark and continuously improve their water, land, material and carbon footprints,

extend the producer responsibility principle and to remove barriers that hold back resource efficiency; adopt, without delay and by 2014, concrete plans based on a clear definition for phasing out all environmentally harmful subsidies by 2020; support, in collaboration with industry and academia, resource efficiency through special university programmes and scholarships.

Parliament calls on the Member States to make a shift towards environmental taxation , emphasising that this should allow for cuts in other taxes such as those on labour, increase competitiveness and create a level playing field, and pave the way for technological development. It calls on the Commission and the Member States to monitor and compare the effects of this instrument.

The resolution stresses the need to:

develop awareness strategies and strategies to alter consumer behaviour; secure a sustainable European supply of raw materials, sufficient to meet the needs of a growing recycling sector; introduce stronger requirements on Green Public Procurement (GPP) for products and services that have significant environmental impacts; extend environmental information requirements to cover conventional mass consumer goods.

Members call on the Member States to ensure full implementation of the EU waste acquis, including minimum targets, through their national waste prevention and management strategies and plans. They reiterate that the existing targets regarding collection and separation need to be further elaborated and set for the highest and qualitatively best recovery of materials in each phase. The Commission is called upon to make proposals by 2014 with a view to gradually introducing a general ban on waste landfill at European level and for the phasing-out, by the end of this decade, of incineration of recyclable and compostable waste. They consider that a landfill tax – as has already been introduced by some Member States – could also help achieve the above ends.

Members also call on the Commission and the Member States to take more effective action to combat illegal shipments of waste , especially hazardous waste, to non-EU countries. In this context, they call for a ‘European external waste policy’ be established with a view to spreading the best European waste treatment standards beyond the confines of the EU.

The resolution highlights the importance of research, development and innovation for speeding up the transformation to a resource-efficient Europe. It invites the Commission to investigate how resource efficiency in the EU’s mining and processing industry can be boosted in order to increase competitiveness and sustainability, and urges Member States to consider the establishment of centres for innovation technologies to support the extraction, recycling and reuse of useful components from mining waste products and facilitate the subsequent use of mining waste products.

It urges the Commission to examine the effects of a tax on resources and virgin raw materials, and in particular any side-effects, such as non-sustainable substitution, tax avoidance or shifting economic activities to third countries.

4. Natural capital and ecosystem services : Parliament emphasises that biodiversity is essential to the existence of human life and the wellbeing of societies. It stresses the importance of water as a natural resource that is vital for both humankind and ecosystems.

Members take the view that Europe’s resources should be managed in a more strategic and environmentally sound manne r. They believe that a greater effort should be made to manage existing resources in the EU, in particular minerals, metals and timber, as well as energy resources including fossil fuels. The resolution highlights the importance of sustainable agriculture , leading to diminishing imported land use and a reduction in Europe’s carbon footprint.

Parliament stresses the need to boost forestry protection in the EU and consolidate the associated risk prevention methods. It calls on the Commission, together with the timber industry, to examine the scope for specific measures aimed at the sustainable exploitation of forestry resources, in particular via pilot projects. It urges the Commission also to calculate and disclose the costs of the environmental damage arising as a consequence of the EU’s agriculture and fisheries policies .

5. Governance and monitoring : Parliament reiterates the importance of a set of coherent, measurable, clear and verifiable sectoral targets, including an overall target , in order to implement the vision and milestones of the Roadmap. Recognising the need for a solid scientific basis, the Commission is called upon to put forward on that basis a concrete proposal for such targets for the EU and the Member States, at the latest within a year of adoption of the relevant indicators, and to ensure that all EU policies are consistent with the targets set.

Members consider that the milestones included in the Roadmap should be considered as targets until more detailed ones are set. They call on the Member States to include corresponding targets in their own resource efficiency strategies.

6. International dimension : Parliament considers the efficient and sustainable use and allocation of resources to be a key element of EU industrial policy which should also inform the Union’s external relations now and in the future. It takes the view that a fair, open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and the protection of the environment should be mutually reinforcing.

The resolution reasserts that all current bilateral and regional European trade agreements need to include an ambitious chapter on sustainability . It asks the Commission to incorporate issues related to raw materials to a greater extent in current and future negotiations carried out by the EU on a bilateral or multilateral basis.

Members consider that the inclusion of tariff preferences for environmental products and services produced in a socially responsible way in the Generalised System of Preferences could generate added value in the area of the EU’s trade with developing countries.

Lastly, the resolution points out that the upcoming Rio +20 Earth Summit could be an important forum for discussing the issues of resource efficiency and sustainable development. Parliament urges the EU and its Member States to play a decisive and positive role at this conference in order to meet the challenges of establishing an inclusive and green economy on a global scale.

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted an own-initiative report by Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL) on a resource-efficient Europe in response to a Commission communication on the same subject.

The current economic, financial and environmental crisis shows that Europe urgently needs new sources of sustainable economic growth. The report suggests focusing on the following priority actions . The report calls on Commission and the Council to:

establish Joint Task Forces for the three key areas of food and drink, housing, and mobility in order to develop, as soon as possible, European Resource Efficiency Action Plans ; remove the obstacles to a functioning European market in recycling and reuse , and to stimulate such a market by fostering the demand for and availability of recycled materials and by-products, through measures which should include the swift further development of stringent end-of-waste criteria and economic incentives, such as reduced VAT rates for secondary materials; boost research and technological innovation in order to speed up the transition to a resource-efficient economy. The Commission is invited to set up an easily accessible, online ‘ best practice ’ data bank for resource efficiency; agree, by 2013, on clear, robust and measurable indicators for economic activity that take account of climate change, biodiversity and resource efficiency from a life-cycle perspective and to use these indicators as a basis for legislative initiatives and concrete reduction targets; integrate the resource efficiency agenda as comprehensively as possible into all other policies, including the overarching economic governance policies such as Europe 2020, and to implement it at local, regional, national, and EU level.

Agenda for future growth: Members endorse the Flagship Initiative on a Resource Efficient Europe and the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe and its 2050 vision. They call on the Commission to put forward swiftly all legislative and other initiatives that are necessary to achieve the milestones and to ensure that all EU policies are coherently aligned to them and to the overall EU vision for creating a low-carbon economy by 2050, by, inter alia, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% compared to 1990 levels.

The report recalls that decoupling economic growth from resource consumption is essential for improving Europe ’ s competitiveness and reducing its resource dependency. It calls on the Commission to propose, by the end of 2012, a new Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) policy framework, establishing a process for identifying the priority products or services which contribute the most to the key global consumption areas (water, land, materials and carbon).

Members also underline the urgent need to act now in order to support innovation and investment in new techniques and business models, including sectoral industrial strategies and sustainable business models such as a leasing society, and to create the incentives that will bring benefits for the economy.

Transforming the economy: Members consider that for the transition to a resource-efficient economy to be realised, market prices need to fully reflect the degree of resource scarcity , as well as all costs entailed in the production process. They endorse the Commission ’ s commitment in the Roadmap to developing market-based instruments to enable negative externalities to be included in market prices, thereby reflecting the true cost of using resources and their environmental impact.

The Commission and the Member States are invited to:

develop incentives that encourage companies and public bodies to measure, benchmark and continuously improve their water, land, material and carbon footprints, extend the producer responsibility principle and to remove barriers that hold back resource efficiency; adopt, without delay and by 2014, concrete plans based on a clear definition for phasing out all environmentally harmful subsidies by 2020.

The Committee calls on the Member States to make a shift towards environmental taxation , emphasising that this should allow for cuts in other taxes such as those on labour, increase competitiveness and create a level playing field, and pave the way for technological development. It calls on the Commission and the Member States to monitor and compare the effects of this instrument.

The report stresses the need to:

develop awareness strategies and strategies to alter consumer behaviour; secure a sustainable European supply of raw materials, sufficient to meet the needs of a growing recycling sector; introduce stronger requirements on Green Public Procurement (GPP) for products and services that have significant environmental impacts; extend environmental information requirements to cover conventional mass consumer goods.

Members call on the Member States to ensure full implementation of the EU waste acquis, including minimum targets, through their national waste prevention and management strategies and plans. They call on the Commission to make proposals by 2014 with a view to gradually introducing a general ban on waste landfill at European level and for the phasing-out, by the end of this decade, of incineration of recyclable and compostable waste.

Members also call on the Commission and the Member States to take more effective action to combat illegal shipments of waste , especially hazardous waste, to non-EU countries. In this context, they call for a ‘ European external waste policy ’ be established with a view to spreading the best European waste treatment standards beyond the confines of the EU.

The report highlights the importance of research, development and innovation for speeding up the transformation to a resource-efficient Europe. It invites the Commission to investigate how resource efficiency in the EU ’ s mining and processing industry can be boosted in order to increase competitiveness and sustainability, and urges Member States to consider the establishment of centres for innovation technologies to support the extraction, recycling and reuse of useful components from mining waste products and facilitate the subsequent use of mining waste products.

It urges the Commission to examine the effects of a tax on resources and virgin raw materials, and in particular any side-effects, such as non-sustainable substitution, tax avoidance or shifting economic activities to third countries.

Natural capital and ecosystem services: the Commission and the Member States are invited to assess the economic value of ecosystems and integrate these values into reporting and accounting systems by 2015.

Members emphasise that biodiversity is essential to the existence of human life and the wellbeing of societies. They stress the importance of water as a natural resource that is vital for both humankind and ecosystems.

Members take the view that Europe ’ s resources should be managed in a more strategic and environmentally sound manne r; believes that a greater effort should be made to manage existing resources in the EU, in particular minerals, metals and timber, as well as energy resources including fossil fuels.

The report highlights the importance of sustainable agriculture and dietary changes in order to reduce animal protein intake , leading to diminishing imported land use and a reduction in Europe ’ s carbon footprint.

Members stress the need to boost forestry protection in the EU and consolidate the associated risk prevention methods. They call on the Commission, together with the timber industry, to examine the scope for specific measures aimed at the sustainable exploitation of forestry resources, in particular via pilot projects.

They urge the Commission also to calculate and disclose the costs of the environmental damage arising as a consequence of the EU ’ s agriculture and fisheries policies.

International dimension : Members consider the efficient and sustainable use and allocation of resources to be a key element of EU industrial policy which should also inform the Union ’ s external relations now and in the future. They take the view that a fair, open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and the protection of the environment should be mutually reinforcing.

The report reasserts that all current bilateral and regional European trade agreements need to include an ambitious chapter on sustainability . It asks the Commission to incorporate issues related to raw materials to a greater extent in current and future negotiations carried out by the EU on a bilateral or multilateral basis.

Members consider that the inclusion of tariff preferences for environmental products and services produced in a socially responsible way in the Generalised System of Preferences could generate added value in the area of the EU ’ s trade with developing countries.

Lastly, the report points out that the upcoming Rio +20 Earth Summit could be an important forum for discussing the issues of resource efficiency and sustainable development. Members urge the EU and its Member States to play a decisive and positive role at this conference in order to meet the challenges of establishing an inclusive and green economy on a global scale.

Ministers had an exchange of views concerning the Commission communication "Roadmap to a Resource-Efficient Europe", presented in September 2011.

The Council also adopted conclusions stressing that the roadmap is a key element for the implementation of the flagship initiative " A resource-efficient Europe ", in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy, which will lead the EU into economic transformation towards a more sustainable and competitive economy and contribute to the world-wide efforts to ensure a transition towards a greener economy.

The conclusions highlighted that all resources should be sustainably managed within environmental limits, from raw materials to energy, water, air, land, soil, biodiversity and marine resources, and waste should be turned into a resource. The EU objective in the context of necessary reductions according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by developed countries as a group, to reduce emissions by 80-95% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels should be reached, while biodiversity and the ecosystem services it underpins should be protected, valued and appropriately restored.

Ministers reaffirmed that the transformation will need an integrated and coherent policy framework that creates a level playing field, where eco-innovation and resource efficiency are rewarded, creating economic opportunities and improved security of supply through a life-cycle approach, product redesign and high quality standards, sustainable management of natural resources, greater waste prevention and reuse, recycling and recovery, substitution of environmentally damaging and critical raw materials and resource savings.

Ministers are aware that the shift towards a sustainable and responsible resource-efficient European economy and society will require, in addition to technological innovation, innovation at the level of our socio-economic system, i.e. new governance models , new business and education models , new consumption patterns , and lifestyles geared towards the sustainable management of resources.

In the context of a difficult economic situation, some member states called for innovative financial solutions, also in the framework of the European Semester, arguing for closer cooperation with business. Proper conditions need to be established, both in the form of regulatory and market-based instruments, as well as through voluntary schemes, in order to stimulate resource efficiency.

Ministers underlined the need to address together with all stakeholders, the short-term transitional side-effects and emerging implications of the shift to a resource-efficient economy, such as:

· possible employment loss in some sectors and a need for anticipation and mitigation measures in the process of restructuring;

· the rebound effect, that may result when increases in resource efficiency are offset by increases in consumption which eliminates expected environmental benefits;

· relocation of environmental pressures, especially carbon leakage, which may result from high adaptation costs within the EU compared to regions with lower environmental requirements and no equivalent committments;

· possible trade-offs among and between environmental and other policy objectives.

Several ministers also drew attention to the direct link between the Resource Efficiency Roadmap and the future 7th EAP, which should be complementary and reinforce each other in providing for, respectively, the integration of environmental aspects in the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy and the definition of the environmental policy priorities and actions.

The Commission made a statement indicating that it would have preferred more ambitious conclusions.

PURPOSE: presentation of the flagship initiative “A resource-efficient Europe” under the Europe 2020 strategy.

BACKGROUND: natural resources underpin the functioning of the European and global economy and our quality of life. These resources include raw materials such as fuels, minerals and metals but also food, soil, water, air, biomass and ecosystems and the pressures on them are increasing .

If current trends continue, by 2050, the global population is expected to have grown by 30% to around 9 billion and people in developing and emerging economies will legitimately aspire to the welfare and consumption levels of developed countries.

Given these changes, the Commission considers that continuing our current patterns of resource use is not an option . It will be necessary to: i) develop new products and services and find new ways to reduce inputs, ii) minimise waste, iii) improve management of resource stocks, iv) change consumption patterns, and v) optimise production processes, management and business methods in order to boost employment in the “green technology” sector and sustain EU trade.

Using resources more efficiently will help us achieve many of the EU's objectives :

it will be key in making progress to deal with climate change and to achieve our target of reducing EU greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050; it is needed to protect valuable ecological assets, the services they provide and the quality of life for present and future generations; it will help us ensure that the agricultural and fisheries sectors are strong and sustainable and reduce food insecurity in developing countries; by reducing reliance on increasingly scarce fuels and materials, boosting resource efficiency can also improve the security of Europe's supply of raw materials and make the EU's economy more resilient to future increases in global energy and commodity prices.

To enjoy the benefits of a resource-efficient and low-carbon economy, we need to fulfil three conditions :

take coordinated action in a wide range of policy areas and this action needs political visibility and support; act urgently due to long investment lead-times; empower consumers to move to resource-efficient consumption, to drive continuous innovation and ensure that efficiency gains are not lost.

CONTENT: a resource-efficient Europe is one of seven flagship initiatives as part of the Europe 2020 strategy aiming to deliver smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. This flagship initiative aims to create a framework for policies to support the shift towards a resource-efficient and low-carbon economy which will help the EU to:

boost economic performance while reducing resource use; identify and create new opportunities for economic growth and greater innovation and boost the EU's competitiveness; ensure security of supply of essential resources; fight against climate change and limit the environmental impacts of resource use.

A key aim of this flagship initiative is to increase certainty for investment and innovation by forging an agreement on the long-term vision and ensuring that all relevant policies factor in resource efficiency in a balanced manner.

1) Components for delivering the resource-efficient Europe flagship initiative: the initiative provides a long-term framework for action in many policy areas, supporting policy agendas for climate change, energy, transport, industry, raw materials, agriculture, fisheries, biodiversity and regional development. These different components must be well coordinated.

The key components of the long-term framework will come in the form of a series of coordinated roadmaps to:

outline what the EU needs to do to create a low-carbon economy in 2050 , cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95%, as part of global efforts to fight climate change, while improving energy security and promoting sustainable growth and jobs; analyse how the EU can create an energy system by 2050 which is low-carbon, resource-efficient, secure and competitive. This should provide the necessary certainty for investors, researchers, policy makers and regulators; present a vision for a low-carbon, resource-efficient, secure and competitive transport system by 2050 that removes all obstacles to the internal market for transport, promotes clean technologies and modernises transport networks; define medium and long-term objectives and means for achieving them with the main aim to decouple economic growth from resource use and its environmental impact.

Medium-term measures should be consistent with this long-term framework. A number of such measures have already been identified. These include:

an energy efficiency plan with a time horizon of 2020 which will identify measures to achieve energy savings of 20% across all sectors, and which will be followed by legislation to ensure energy efficiency and savings; proposals to reform the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy, Cohesion Policy, energy infrastructure and trans-European networks for transport in the context of the next EU budget to align these areas with the requirements of a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy; a new EU biodiversity strategy for 2020 to halt further loss to and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services in the light of pressures on ecosystems; measures to tackle the challenges in commodity markets and on raw materials which will, amongst others, periodically assess critical raw materials and define a trade policy to ensure sustainable supplies of raw materials from global markets. These measures will help ensure coherence between the EU's raw materials and external policies, including the promotion of good governance, transparency of activities and creation of local valued added in developing countries. It will promote extraction, recycling, research, innovation and substitution inside the EU; a strategy to make the EU a 'circular economy', based on a recycling society with the aim of reducing waste generation and using waste as a resource; early action on adaptation to climate change to minimise threats to ecosystems and human health, support economic development and help adjust our infrastructures to cope with unavoidable climate change; a water policy that makes water saving measures and increasing water efficiency a priority, in order to ensure that water is available in sufficient quantities, is of appropriate quality, is used sustainably and with minimum resource input, and is ultimately returned to the environment with acceptable quality.

2) Building up a knowledge base and a consistent analytical approach : the analysis of initiatives under this flagship initiative must be based, where possible, on common assumptions, parameters and baselines, as well as on shared medium- and long-term visions.

As a first step, in early 2011, the Commission will present joint modelling scenarios up to 2050 on climate, energy and transport policies. The preliminary modelling results suggest that an 80% domestic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels is possible using technologies such as carbon capture and storage, renewable energies, nuclear power and electrification. These preliminary modelling results also suggest that the power generation, residential and industry sectors should be able to reduce emissions by more than 80%, the transport sector by around 60% and the agricultural sector by around 40%.

3) Resource efficiency as an increasing global concern: given the global dimension of key environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity, land use, deforestation, external impacts of consumption and production patterns, competitiveness, security of supply and access, the EU needs to address resource efficiency issues internationally and to cooperate closely with key partners , including with candidate countries and those in its neighbourhood.

Through its external commercial relations, the EU should continue efforts to provide a level playing field for industry, to improve the conditions for sustainable supply of raw materials, and to promote the liberalisation of trade in environmental goods and services so as to ensure industry's international competitiveness.

The Rio+20 international conference on sustainable development in 2012 will focus on the 'green economy' and environmental governance and will provide a good opportunity for the EU to address resource efficiency with global partners.

4) Governance and monitoring progress : the governance and monitoring will take place in the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy and will integrate the relevant elements of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy in order to ensure overall coherence. They will be based on an analysis of EU policies and those of individual Member States in their National Reform Programmes as part of the Annual Growth Survey exercise. This will be done as part of the European Semester for 2012.

The Commission will make concrete proposals for strategies to improve resource efficiency in the various policy areas described above. In the meantime, it invites the European institutions, national parliaments, the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, candidate countries and stakeholders to contribute to the further development of these strategies and the promotion of resource efficiency.