The European Commission recently completed its “Consultation on the establishment of a quantitative reduction headline target for marine litter”. The Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and sustainable Resource management (ACR+) would like to publish the association's contribution to the public consultation.

ACR+ supports the multi-stakeholder approach of the consultation paper, while stressing that the actions suggested can only contribute to marine litter reduction targets if considered as joint, reinforcing and cross-actor tuned actions.

The association is of the opinion that ambitious marine litter reduction targets have to be set, underpinned by a baseline and accompanying indicators, based on a detailed impact assessment, and following a multi-policy approach.

ACR+ would like to address the problematic issue of the Mediterranean basin, as depolluting it will require more than strengthened EU policies targeting the EU-28. The European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) and international/bilateral assistance programs will have to move up a gear if a sustainable and comprehensive marine litter reduction is to be reached.

ACR+ believes, as put forward by the JRC, that, whatever option is taken, a 50% reduction target is feasible if coupled with adequate policy measures.  With weak targets, weak measures are likely; with ambitious targets, ambitious measures become more likely.

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