Activity Report - Establishing the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform

To shape the ECESP in line with stakeholder expectations and requirements, the EESC and European Commission organised a CE stakeholder conference on 9 and 10 March 2017, at which the aforementioned institutions jointly launched the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform. 

The operational conclusions of the 2017 conference suggested that the Platform should have as objectives:

• Exchanging of good practices and learning experiences, based on voluntary contributions of
  members;
• Fostering an overall circular economy network in Europe, raising awareness and supporting
  stakeholders;
• Acting as a European information and dialogue space for stakeholders;
• Helping identifying barriers and obstacles through multi-stakeholder exchange and networking from a socio-economic and cultural perspective;
• Strengthening policy dialogue between policy-makers and stakeholders, including on social and labour-related aspects of the transition.

The July 2017 call for the ECESP Coordination Group garnered much interest from the circular economy community and the 24-member group of circular economy stakeholders was selected in October 2017 by the EESC and European Commission.

The EESC launched the ECESP virtual platform in November 2017 and a subsequent update in February 2018 enables stakeholders to submit content directly. 

The 2018 conference, titled Delivering on the Circular Economy – What's next? was another success for the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, drawing more than 650 participants on Day 1 and 350 on Day 2.