The audience included around 100 executives and experts in the business ecosystem across Europe as well as media, think tanks, and national EU/policymakers.
EPF’s Managing Board Member and CEO of Unilin Panels, Mrs Veronique Hoflack, was one one of the speakers of the bioeconomy talks.
TED Talk-style session: BIOECONOMY TALKS, with highlights on
- positive developments, business cases and examples of low-carbon innovations at national level across the sector
- investments in the EU and challenges companies might face in the upcoming years
Panel debate: Supporting EU competitiveness for green industrialisation objectives
As the Spanish EU Presidency prioritises the reindustrialisation of the EU and how to ensure open strategic autonomy, the role of sustainable value chains of manufacturing industries, such as the ones represented by the Circular Choices Coalition, will be key.
It indeed provides meaningful employment, reduces continuing dependence of Europe on fossil resources and helps cutting carbon emissions of other sectors.
But this focus also opens new questions: How can EU sustainable industries remain competitive in the long term? How to ensure and re-build EU competitiveness while moving towards a circular bioeconomy?
ABOUT THE COALITION FOR CIRCULAR CHOICES
In March 2023, Cepi launched the Circular Choices Coalition for a competitive EU bioeconomy, which promotes the policy and market conditions necessary in the EU to scale-up the circular bioeconomy. The coalition, which is the broadest ever within the sector, brings together 14 EU trade associations that represent providers of renewable products and renewable energy solutions -wood, fibre-based, paper, products and packaging, bioenergy industries. And it is supported by a further of six trade associations that represent EU forest owners and managers.
These integrated value chains are a pillar of the EU economy. They are also key for the strategic autonomy of Europe: they are renewable and sourced, made and recycled in Europe, with European technology. Together, they directly employ more than four million Europeans, representing 520 billion euro in annual turnover. It is also a manufacturing powerhouse: one in every five manufacturing companies in Europe are in this sector.
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