RREUSE has contributed to the implementation of the 2021-2026 Social Economy Action Plan. As a result of our advocacy and research, RREUSE recommendations were taken up in the groundbreaking Council Recommendation on Developing Social Economy Framework Conditions. The Council Recommendation contains 5 references to reuse, 6 to repair, and 13 to the circular economy. The Recommendation unequivocally calls for Member States to integrate social economy actors into circular legislation and support their reuse and repair activities. It also calls for improved access to public procurement, state aid, and funds. Finally, the Recommendation comes with the annexed Taxation Guidelines for supportive taxation rules, including via VAT. RREUSE has long advocated for these policies.
Our persistent advocacy and public outreach resulted in the proposed Waste Framework Directive revision recognising social enterprises’ crucial role in reusing textiles. For example, the 2023 proposal by the European Commission features the term ‘‘social economy” 8 times and ‘‘social enterprises” 11 times – compared to just 2 mentions of ‘‘social economy” in the previous revision of 2018. Furthermore, RREUSE is explicitly mentioned 27 times in the impact assessment accompanying the EC proposal.
Our data and the publication ‘‘Job Creation in the Reuse Sector” are featured in the European Parliament’s own-initiative report ‘‘Job Creation – the Just Transition and Impact Investments” and the EP Greens/ EFA 2023 report ‘‘Green Jobs: Success and Opportunities for Europe”. The European Commission’s official website on the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles also prominently features our job creation data.
