To contribute to the European Commission's preparation of its "Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe"; to comment on it once published;
To insist that local and regional authorities and the CoR be involved in the governance and implementation of this Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative;
To reiterate the CoR' call for exploring the expansion the Covenant of Mayors to resource efficiency and to achieve a commitment in this regard by the European Commission in its "Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe".
European Parliament's resolution , reflects some recommendations of the CoR, in particular the European Parliament's calls:
to agree on clear, robust and measurable indicators for economic activity and to use these indicators as a basis for legislative initiatives and concrete reduction targets; the 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;
to 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;
On 5 June 2012, Commissioner Janez Potočnik launched the European Resource Efficiency Platform (EREP). This initiative follows the CoR pledge, expressed in its opinion, to create a "multi-actor transition platform on resource efficiency", including inter alia policy makers from various administrative levels including regional and local ones. The CoR is represented by the Vice-President Ms Mercedes Bresso.
On 8 November 2012, the CoR hosted European Waste and Resource Days, with opening speeches by CoR Secretary-General Gerhard Stahl and by the rapporteur. High visibility was given to the CoR in the policy field of waste management, which is a key element of the CoR Opinion and future EU action under the resource efficiency roadmap.
The CoR acquired high visibility through numerous high-level events in 2012, such as:
on 20 April 2012, the CoR hosted the International Conference "The EU and China – Partners for a Green World";
on 20-22 June 2012, the CoR participated in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Earth Summit) and spoke at the side event on "When cities breathe, people progress: Europe's Cities building partnerships”.
THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- calls for the European Commission's Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe timeframe, to be tightened and advocates adopting the indicators already in 2012; also urges that the competent local and regional institutions are consulted, in order to ensure that the indicators are realistic and deliverable both in terms of capacity and affordability;
- asks the Commission to consider adopting a "basket" of four main resource-use indicators: land footprint, use of raw materials (biodiversity, biological and mineral resources), water footprint and greenhouse-gas footprint; stresses the need for the Commission to make the indicators an integral part of the national reporting system for Europe 2020 and its related Flagship Initiative, so that they guide the national reform programmes and budget preparations;
- deplores the roadmap's failure to mention the possibility of involving the Covenant of Mayors in efforts to achieve resource efficiency and proposes to consider, jointly with the European Commission, specific ways of extending the Covenant to include key areas of the "Resource Efficient Europe" Flagship Initiative, such as biodiversity and land use, waste and water management or air pollution;
- recommends specific actions that in particular aim at moving to low-carbon, resource-efficient transport and energy systems, promoting green public procurement, achieving a zero-waste society through optimising waste prevention and seeing waste as a resource within a circular economy; promoting substitution and resource efficiency in the raw materials value chain; using efficiently, protecting and restoring ecosystem services, and at reducing the extent of existing soil sealing wherever needed.