Commissioner Roswalls address at the event, ‘Delivering growth across Europe through a Circular Economy hosted by the EU Delegation to the UK, the Institute for European Environmental Policy and the British Academy

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to join you. And thank you to the Institute for European Environmental Policy and the British Academy for gathering us here today.

Since January 2020, the United Kingdom and the European Union have taken somewhat different paths.

It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, when Alice meets the cat and asks, ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

The cat replies ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

On both sides of the English Channel, we are trying to get to the same place – thriving economies, sustainable growth, and the rational use of natural resources.

Which path are you taking? When it comes to the environment, we are watching closely.

What will you change? How? And how successfully?

And, crucially, what can we learn?

We are especially interested to see the direction the UK will take with its Circular Economy Strategy later this year.

Let me tell you about the road we are taking.

Since 2020, the EU path towards a circular economy has evolved.

Most significantly, we have complimented our previous focus on waste with two things:

• • A new focus on design; and
  • A focus on getting the markets to work better.

Today, our European single market provides a single set of rules, and freedoms of movement, for 450 million people.

In 2024, we adopted the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, setting requirements for products placed on this market.

We are developing simple and straightforward criteria for durability, repairability and recyclability.

We start with those product groups that have the biggest impact, and the biggest potential to reduce those impacts through better design.

That means textiles, furniture, tires, iron, steel and aluminium.

The design stage is a sweet spot, where small and often inexpensive decisions can have a massive effect -- both on a products impact and on future costs for consumers, taxpayers and the environment.

With Ecodesign, we are targeting the worst design features and identifying the biggest potential for improvement.

We are also tackling some of the irrational, even obscene aspects of linear production and consumption.

For example, the destruction of unsold and unused goods and the excesses of fast fashion.

Design is important. But we also need to make the markets themselves work better.

Today, they are far too linear.

Only about 12% of the materials in European products, buildings and infrastructure are recycled.

We need to tackle bottlenecks on the supply and demand sides to improve this.

Who is going to invest in building recycling capacity for plastics or textiles when they cannot be sure they will sell the recycled materials at a good price?

And who is going to source recycled steel or paper for their products if they cannot be sure of its quality and reliability?

This year, we will adopt a Circular Economy Act to build a circular single market that addresses these questions, and more.

Let me take the example of textiles, which will be one of the six key sectors addressed by the UK Circular Economy Growth Plan.

In the UK, and the rest of Europe, the economics for separate collection, recycling and recirculation of textiles do not stack up.

This is a key barrier to achieving a circular economy for textiles.

Without a coherent approach, tens of millions of tonnes of textiles will continue to be landfilled or incinerated, or will leak into the environment in export markets every year.

The EU has taken concrete action to tackle this – and we will continue taking action.  

Since 2025, separate municipal textile collections are mandatory in EU Member States.

Extended Producer Responsibility for textiles will be brought in.

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation has put textiles and garments as its top priority and is moving to define performance requirements.

This will enable the elimination of dyes, glues and fibre blends that make recycling impossible.

And it will lead to more durable clothing and therefore less textile waste.

The Regulation is also moving to ban or restrict the destruction of unsold textiles.

And the EU has opened the door to lower VAT on repair services.

Multiple EU Member States have already implemented reduced VAT rates on repairs, signalling growing use of fiscal tools to support circular business models.

These are vital steps, but the economics are still not working.

It is still not attractive to invest in fibre-to-fibre recycling capacity.

The technology exists, but there is no confidence that there will be enough demand.

That is why, in the Circular Economy Act later this year, we will be looking at boosting demand for recycled fibres.

Maybe public procurement – for items such as hospital sheets and military and police uniforms – could be the catalyst needed to generate enough predictable demand.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Circularity is the only way we can prosper in a world of growing competition for limited natural resources and energy,

It is the only way we can ensure our strategic autonomy and economic stability in a world of increasing insecurity.

And it is the only way we can decouple our growth and wellbeing from resource use and the emissions and environmental degradation that it causes.

I know that this year, the British Academy is focussing on ‘Living with the Planet, exploring how human societies can achieve a sustainable future amid climate and biodiversity crises.

Circularity provides a path - or I should say several possible paths - to that goal.

I look forward to continuing the journey with you.

Thank you.