Welcome back!
This is the last edition before the summer: we hope you are all able to have a good break before everything picks up again towards the end of August!
In recent news, the ECESP’s expertise contributed to the European Economic and Social Committee exploratory opinion on the Circular Economy Act that has now been adopted. Two of the Platform’s familiar faces were at the helm of this advisory document requested by the European Commission: Cillian Lohan, one of the Platform’s founding fathers, as the rapporteur and Ladeja Godina Kosir, co-chair of the Coordination Group, as the advisor.
Together, they harnessed the knowledge, expertise, views and expectations voiced by stakeholders during the ECESP Annual Conference in April and turned them into a series of official recommendations that were approved by the EESC. The opinion makes several key points, such as the need to strengthen circular business models, use traceability, certification, harmonised labelling and technical standards to build market confidence in secondary raw materials and capitalise on transition brokers to drive on the circular transition.
In case you missed it, the ECESP held an #EU Circular Talk earlier this month, on Machinery manufacturing in the circular economy – an unexplored ally in the circular transition? Manufacturing of machinery and equipment is the second largest consumer of metals in the EU after construction, yet the sector's circular potential is mostly overlooked. See the key takeways and the recording here!
We have another #EU Circular Talk coming up before the summer break. Taking place on 15 July, it will launch the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's new report on Circular by nature: a policy agenda for bio-based materials in a circular economy. Register to take part in a discussion on key principles and recommendations for circularity in the production and use of bio-based materials!
Last but certainly not least, we’ve added a good selection of events, good practices, toolkits and other resources to our website. You can read about some of them here, such as the European Commission's Bio-based Europe Alliance, a CCRI survey calling for input on strengthening circular economy action at local and regional levels, an opportunity to join the SME Working Group and to sign up for a European platform enabling people to share resources and time, events on the EU Digital Product Passport for Batteries and financing the circular transition - and much more!
As always, please do tell us about your own circular activities and initiatives - just fill in the 
