This own-initiative opinion stems from the European Commission call for an "Industry 5.0" based on: human centricity, sustainability and resilience. Industry 5.0 aims thus at broadening the previous concept of Industry 4.0, providing a transformative vision for a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry. This opinion will reflect on how to concretely implement the concept of Industry 5.0.
This opinion is part of the EESC pilot "Enlargement Candidate Members (ECM)" where representatives from Turkey will take part in the study groups an in the Section meeting. The Turkish representatives are: Özgür Burak Akkol (Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TİSK), for Group I), Cavit Demiral (Confederation of Turkish Real Trade for Group II) and Ayşe Yürekli (Women Entrepreneurs Association of Türkiye, for Group III).
The European Commission presented its Critical Raw Materials Act in the beginning of March. The package of legislative and non-legislative measures is aimed at diversifying the supply of the materials needed to achieve the green and digital transition.
Download — Udvalgets udtalelse: Critical Raw Materials Act
Steel is one of Europe's essential strategic sectors and plays a vital role in providing products and services to a wide-range of Europe’s industrial ecosystems.
Download — Udvalgets udtalelse: Sustainable recycling, use of secondary raw materials and Just Transition in the European ferrous and nonferrous metal industry
This initiative wants to call on the European Commission to provide more integrated strategies for specific economic sectors, coordinating the various policies fields to an ongoing transition of our European economy. To this end, we have chosen the furniture sector to exemplify challenges and opportunities regarding the sector's recovery and green transition to a sustainable and circular economy (bio-economy), its technological transformation, mainly driven by the digitalisation of industrial processes, and the sector's overall target of managing the climate change.
Download — Udvalgets udtalelse: The European furniture industry – Its recovery towards an innovative, green and circular economy
European Union statistics clearly show the enormous amounts of packaging materials currently used for the safety, hygiene, transportation, conservation, presentation and application of all kinds of goods – be they for industrial purposes, construction work, communication systems or individual consumption. Most of them are of carbonic or metallic origin, which are limited resources. A largely predominant part of the waste of these packaging materials can, and mostly do, have a negative environmental impact and may seriously endanger human health as well as animal and plant well-being. Material transformation and recycling for the reuse of the basic substances can only very partially reduce the many problems connected.
Download — Udvalgets udtalelse: Making packaging a safe, affordable and eco-friendly industry
Waste transport can involve hazardous materials that are harmful to human health and the environment. The EU therefore has rules in place on waste shipments (Regulation 1013/2006) and the Commission intends to review the EU rules on waste shipments.
Download — Udvalgets udtalelse: Waste shipments – revision of EU rules
In September 2020, the European Commission presented the Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials, which also contains the 2020 List of Critical Raw Materials.
Download — Udvalgets udtalelse: Critical Raw Materials Resilience: Charting a Path towards greater Security and Sustainability
The Commission's new Circular Economy Action Plan focuses on sustainable products, less waste, product value chains, and circularity in regions and cities, and the global level.
Download — Udvalgets udtalelse: New Circular Economy Action Plan
The EESC fully backs the objective of switching to a greener, resource-efficient and circular economy. It is happy to see that the Commission has come forward with a broader set of proposals covering all the stages of the product lifecycle compared to the previous circular economy package; however, it raises concern over the lower level of ambition, which is likely to lead to lower economic and environmental benefits.
