Citizens' Panel presents 23 recommendations for less food waste
The European Commission has organised a European Citizens' Panel where citizens could make suggestions on how to reduce food waste in the EU more. At the end of three weekends of consultations, the 142 citizens submitted 23 recommendations. They aim to strengthen ongoing efforts to reduce food waste – through more cooperation in the food value chain, promoting relevant initiatives in the food industry and supporting changes in consumer behaviour.
The recommendations of the Citizens' Panel on food waste will complement the impact assessment and open public consultation that the Commission is carrying out as part of the EU initiative to revise the Waste Framework Directive with binding targets for food waste reduction.
The reduction of waste, in particular food waste, is the subject of a legislative proposal in the Commission's 2023 Work Programme, in line with the Farm to Fork strategy and the proposals of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Reactions of the EU Institutions
Feedback event in Brussels
On 2 December 2022, high-level representatives of the three institutions, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission, presented to citizens who participated in European and national panels and events their follow-up on the Conference and its proposals.
The programme of the follow-up event is available on the Conference’s platform. The public sessions of the event is streamed here.
The European Commission adopted a notification about the Conference on the future of Europe – “Putting Vision into Concrete Action” on June 17, 2022.
As early as June 9, 2022, the European Parliament requested the European Council in a resolution to initiate a convention to revise the EU treaties in order to implement the results of the conference.
The European Council took note of the outcome of the conference in a conclusion on June 24, 2022. The EU Institutions must ensure effective follow-up to the proposals of the conference, within their respective competences and in accordance with the treaties.
Report on the final outcome
The Conference on the Future of Europe concluded its work.
A year-long journey of the Conference on the Future of Europe brought together Europeans from across the EU. And they came up with proposals for a better EU.
The report (opens in new tab)
on the final outcome of the Conference, including 49 proposals and 326 measures how to achieve them, was presented to the Presidents of the three institutions on 9 May 2022.
Some 20,000 ideas were shared on the online platform, 178 recommendations were formulated by the European Citizens' Panels.
European democracy was the topic with most contributions, followed by climate change and the environment.
Background
During a final meeting, that took place from 29 April to 30 April at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Conference Plenary reached a consensus on its final draft proposals (opens in new tab)
. They are based on recommendations from the European Citizens’ Panels, the National Citizens’ Panels and events, ideas recorded on the Multilingual Digital Platform (opens in new tab)
as well as discussions held during the Conference Plenary and Working Group sessions.
Further information
EP Research Service – At A Glance: The Conference on the Future of Europe (20.01.2022)
Timeline of the Conference on the Future of Europe
Free photos, video and audio material from Parliament#s Multimedia Centre