ACR+ position on the EU Bioeconomy Strategy

With its extensive expertise in supporting public authorities in their transition towards circularity, ACR+ welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) initiative to revise the EU bioeconomy strategy.

This revision presents a crucial opportunity to unlock the full potential of bioeconomy as a strategic tool for achieving sustainable and resilient economies, in line with European climate and environmental objectives. To maximise impact, the revision must be accompanied by technical and financial support to regional authorities and can in turn learn from existing examples and good practices at EU level.

Leveraging its expertise and the experience of its network, ACR+ contributed to the public consultation on the upcoming EU Bioeconomy strategy launched by the European Commission. It its answer and position paper, ACR+ shares recommendations stemming from concrete experiences of some ACR+ members (FADI (RO), Zero Waste Scotland (UK), Fryslan (NDL), Pays de la Loire (FR), Region Wallonie (BE), Lipor (PT) as well as EU funded project results.

Our position paper emphasises:

• The importance of applying the waste hierarchy principles to the bioeconomy;
• The need for robust, up to date and transparent data on regional resource feedstocks and flows, to assess the state of the art of bioeconomy  and identify feasible and suitable transition pathways;
• The need for further integration of bioeconomy into universities’ curricula, alongside vocational trainings for professionals (i.e farmers) and EU skills certifications;
• The importance of stakeholder engagement for defining and implementing a successful circular bioeconomy pathway at regional level;
• The need for guidance and support to regions when it comes to financing local bioeconomy projects.