The EU Commission asked for a public consultation on Europe’s 2012 Bioeconomy strategy update – The Roadmap. The feedback period was open from 20 February 2018 - 20 March 2018. After that, the Commission will review all published feedbacks when further developing the strategy update.
All BIOREGIO partner regions contributed in writing this feedback and unanimously agreed on the magnitude of strengthening the circularity and sustainability of bioeconomy. BIOREGIO would like to emphasize the fact of bioeconomy not being always circular by nature, and therefore, stress the need of bioeconomy being designed in a circular way.
Link to the feedback: http://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2018-975361/feedback/F10485_enhttp://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2018-975361/feedback/F10485_en
This feedback stems from the consortium of the Interreg Europe BIOREGIO project (https://www.interregeurope.eu/bioregio/) that aims to improve knowledge related to circular economy of biological materials.
BIOREGIO project believes that strengthening the circularity and sustainability of bioeconomy shall definitely be the core issues of the update. The importance to understand the effect of bioeconomy on natural resources and ecosystem services should be of outmost priority, while a deeper exploration of the relations between the biosphere and economic activity is needed for better understanding of bioeconomy. It should be noted that bioeconomy is not circular by nature, but needs to be designed in a circular way, according to the waste hierarchy. One important challenge is strengthening education and knowledge for bioeconomy to be successful in all sectors, especially in agriculture, agri-food value chain and bioenergy production. Therefore, it is important to identify value-added activities that support investment in production, research, processing, retail & marketing.
BIOREGIO highly supports the proposed Roadmap for the update of the Bioeconomy Strategy as being highly relevant for the agricultural and forestry sectors in view of the great potential of the bioeconomy in ensuring food security for the increasing global population, while addressing environmental challenges and contributing to more circular and sustainable production systems, as well as in providing new opportunities for growth and rural development.
Nevertheless, a circular economy of biological materials is a superset that contains more than food economy. Therefore, non-food bioeconomy cascades should be included in the updated bioeconomy strategy. The Strategy and Action Plan should support strategic research and innovation, as stated in the roadmap. Transregional cooperation, exchange of good practises and linkages between public and corporate domains can promote a fast and efficient integration of circular bioeconomy in the Member States. Strong support of knowledge gathering, research and capacity building are key factors for building a concrete base for the circular bioeconomy in Europe.
BIOREGIO project consortium:
- Finland, Lahti University of Applied Sciences (Lead partner)
- Finland, Regional Council of Päijät-Häme
- Spain, Deputy Regional Ministry for Environment
- Slovakia, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
- Greece, Aristotle University Thessaloniki
- Greece, Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia on behalf of the Region of Central Macedonia
- Romania, National Research and Development Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry, Calarasi Subsidiary
- France, Association of the Chambers of Agriculture of the Atlantic Area
