2017 ended with the Estonian presidency reaching a provisional agreement with representatives of the European Parliament on all four legislative proposals of the waste package. It was soon followed by a European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy adopted at the beginning of 2018. Without going into details, the agreed waste legislative proposals and the plastics strategy reinforced our conviction that we need to be ambitious when it comes to the transition to a circular economy.
ACR+ has worked and will continue to work in this direction, showing that cities and regions are at the forefront with examples of innovative and efficient good practices. Through cooperation and exchange of experiences, ACR+ members show that everyone, at his/her level and with the means available, can take an active role in this change and improve performances on their territory. For that, ACR+ has been involved in a series of activities, projects and events throughout 2017. Details about these activities are all gathered in the ACR+ Activity Report 2017 now available online.
In short, 2017 has been a successful year for ACR+ in terms of visibility and expertise. Building on the work started in the previous years, ACR+ has gained more and more credit as an expert in circular economy and in sustainable resource management. It is now an essential partner and recurrent invitee at European level when circular economy is on the menu; for example being one of the 24 members of the Coordination Group of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform or part of the Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy. This direction will of course be kept in the future years, always making sure to increase skills and knowledge within the network to better serve members and share their voices at European level.