In June 2020 the European Parliament and the Council approved Regulation (EU) 2020/852 for determining whether an economic activity qualifies as environmentally sustainable for the purposes of establishing the degree to which an investment is environmentally sustainable.
Three articles of the Regulation are especially relevant for the development of SMART WASTE , namely:
- Article 2 sets out a definition of circular economy applying for the purpose of the Regulation itself;
- Article 9 includes the transition to a circular economy among environmental objectives set out for the purpose of the Regulation;
- Article 11 sets out criteria to qualify an economic activity as contributing substantially to the transition to a circular economy, including waste prevention, re-use and recycling.
Since evaluating public policies support to innovation in waste management in SMART WASTE partners territories lies at the very core of the SMART WASTE project, both circular economy definition and criteria set out in above mentioned Regulation articles are especially relevant as a reference to support policy instrument evaluation activities.
