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European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Commissioner Roswall's keynote address at the LOOP Forum 2026 Copenhagen, 29 April 2026 Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to be part of this important event. I am also very happy to be back in a Nordic context. As some of you may know, I was the Swedish minister for EU affairs and the Nordics, before becoming a Commissioner. So, I truly believe in Nordic cooper...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Commissioner Roswall's keynote address at the LOOP Forum 2026 Copenhagen, 29 April 2026 Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to be part of this important event. I am also very happy to be back in a Nordic context. As some of you may know, I was the Swedish minister for EU affairs and the Nordics, before becoming a Commissioner. So, I truly believe in Nordic cooperation. This holds very true for the topic of circularity. We have a lot to learn from each other. Since the beginning of my mandate, I have discussed the question of circularity with people and businesses across Europe and around the world. I have seen some of the most innovative examples of circularity. And I have learned how circularity is actually embedded in our oldest cultures and traditions. In Osaka last year, I learned about the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi – where broken pottery is fixed using gold or silver to fill in the cracks. The repaired pottery becomes more valuable than the original – and this idea perfectly captures the magic of circularity. This reminds me of a story closer to home – that some of you may know. 500 years ago, Queen Katarina of Saxe-Lauenburg died after just four years of marriage to King Gustav I of Sweden. She left behind, among other things, an impressive wardrobe. Her father wrote to Gustav asking for the clothes back, so her younger sisters could inherit them. I have a sister, and I can tell you that inheriting, or stealing clothes, is a perk of sisterhood. But Gustav refused. Fine fabrics were hard to come by in Scandinavia, and he had no intention of sending them back to the continent. Three gowns made the journey home. The rest stayed in Sweden, remade into new garments. Circularity was not an ideology in 16th century Sweden. It was simply reality. We live in a very different world today, but there is a powerful lesson in these stories. I found the same lesson in conversations about circularity all over the world. And I see it clearly in the current oil-crisis and the geopolitical turmoil. Today, real wars, trade wars, growing resource scarcity and accelerating climate change are threatening our economies, competitiveness, energy and green transition, security and defence, and more. These events highlight how exposed the EU is to vulnerable supply chains. And how dependent we are on other countries for critical raw materials. We have learned the hard way that we have to become more independent and resilient, without relying on others. So, the common lesson is this: the circular transition is not a “nice to have” or simply an environmental choice. It is – just as it was centuries ago in Sweden – a response to our reality. Circularity contributes on three fronts. First, competitiveness. EU manufacturers typically spend more than twice as much on materials as on labour or energy. However, circular practices cut costs by reducing input needs. A recent study suggests additional circular practices could cut metals use by 10%, electricity by 7% and fossil fuels by 6%. Second, resilience. Circular solutions reduce dependence on scarce resources, increase our strategic autonomy, and make the economy less vulnerable to supply disruptions. The space for improvement is enormous. For example, in a circular Europe, material recovery from batteries could supply more than half of the EU's cobalt demand by 2040. And today, only one per cent of certain rare earth elements is recovered. And third, economic security. Additional circular solutions could improve the EU trade balance by 35 billion euros per year—— reducing exposure to price volatility and shortages. So, circularity is a no-brainer in a resource-poor Europe. How to get there, that's the question. I see five key obstacles: fragmentation of the Single Market; secondary raw material markets that don't fulfil their potential; an uneven playing field that prevents the capture of valuable materials; limited investor confidence—linked to an annual investment gap of 82 billion euros; and consumer behaviour that is not yet aligned with circularity. Of course, for consumers to change we also need to give them the right tools to do so. The EU is tackling these challenges. Last year, we took steps to support plastic recyclers and launched the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, which we will follow up in the second Biotech Act. We also adopted the EU Water Resilience Strategy. Water is not the main topic of today's conference, but we should bear in mind that it's a precious resource that we cannot take for granted. And there is a clear link to circularity, because our water use must become more circular. For example, I'm thinking about water reuse and using sludge from urban wastewater for energy production. Later this year the Commission will adopt a Circular Economy Act, with an overarching goal: To boost material circularity by creating a single market where waste, secondary materials, and circular goods and services move fairly and freely across the European Union. The Act will focus on creating a business case for circular products and models. We need do get the economics right. As long as virgin materials are cheaper than recycled ones, and linear production models cheaper than circular ones, the transition cannot happen. Not all of this can be fixed with new laws. But we do have regulatory levers we can use. Let me mention two examples: First, e-waste. Today, less than 40% of electrical and electronic waste is collected and only 30% recycled. That means we are leaving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of critical raw materials behind. We plan to review our e-waste rules: Widening their scope. Improving their collection and the recovery of materials. Reforming extended producer responsibility. And harmonising treatment standards. And the second example – creating a real Single Market for circular products and secondary raw materials: We need to update the rules to make the transition from waste to secondary raw materials easier and more consistent across Europe. This includes issues such as the definition of waste and looking at waste shipment rules. And we need to look at the issue of demand. For example, we can stimulate demand through targeted circular public procurement criteria. And we should consider introducing recycled and bio ‑ based content requirements for certain products. Ladies and Gentlemen, European companies – many of them here in the Nordics - are leading the transition to circularity. I have visited lithium recycling plants and seen businesses creating entirely compostable packaging without plastic. A Swedish company is putting old, remanufactured gearboxes in new trucks – using 50 percent less material and cutting carbon emissions by up to 45 percent. And our car companies are at the forefront of battery recycling. I know that today's forum includes countless more examples. I have already heard about some of them – and I am looking forward to learning about more. These cases highlight how economic resilience and environmental responsibility are two sides of the same coin. And they show us what we can achieve with leadership, vision, and creativity. But they also remind me of the 12 percent circularity rate in Europe – and how much more we need to do. I assure you that circularity is among my top priorities. I see it as an answer to so many of today's challenges – from decarbonisation to competitiveness to resource scarcity to climate change. And also, crucially, to questions about security. But this journey is impossible without you. And that's why this Forum is so important – gathering industry leaders, policymakers, investors and researchers to debate and share best practices, to inspire, to drive the change from linear to circular. And to lead a new approach based on sustainability and resilience. So, I want to thank the LOOP Forum and all of you for your time. I wish you an insightful, inspirational and innovative event. And I look forward to working closely with you all to close the LOOP. SPEECH/26/926
Speech Brief