The European Institute of Romania (EIR) organized on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, between h10:00 – h11:30, the first event in the Dialogues@EIR series, focused on circular economy.
Our guests were Mrs Mihaela Ștefănescu, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, and Mr Florin Bonciu, PhD, Romanian-American University / Institute for World Economy, and member of the EIR’s Consultative Scientific Board. The event was moderated by Eliza Vaș, Expert, European Studies Unit (EIR). The first dialogue in the series aimed to raise awareness of circular economy-related changes.
The speakers’ interventions and the comments addressed by participants highlighted the following ideas:
- Circular economy implies the development of a regenerative system for a sustainable product design, in which products could be repaired, reused, refurbished, recycled and capitalised;
- Circular economy envisages a decoupling of unrelenting economic growth from continued environmental degradation and pollution;
- Circular economy includes the creation of a business model under which economic operators hold the ownership of goods and act as service providers, by selling the use of products, not products as such;
- At European level, several rules on the matter have already adopted, amongst which a new Circular Economy Action Plan;
- As regards the funding lines available at national level for activities falling within the scope of circular economy, these can be consulted under the programmes of the Environment Fund Administration;
- Circular economy-related changes will be complex in nature and will generate long-term effects, both in terms of consumer behaviour and of extended producer responsibility;
- Romania can gain long-term benefits as a result of the transition to a circular economy, both in the sector of organic farming and in terms of rethinking the competitiveness model.