Bonometti: remove the barriers preventing businesses from continuing their virtuous path of technological innovation and efficient resource use, and promote an interregional call for proposals to incentivise the circular economy, collaboration between supply chains, and partnership projects between the region's territories.

Milan, 3 July 2019 - Sustainable growth and the circular economy in the Alpine region: these are the themes at the heart of the two-day 'BOOSTALPS 2.0' event in Milan, organised by Regione Lombardia as part of the Italian Presidency of EUSALP 2019, and by Confindustria Lombardia as part of the Enterprise Europe Network activities through the SIMPLER consortium.

With a population of 80 million, an area of 450,000 km², and a GDP of over €3,000 billion, the 48 Regions, Länder, and Cantons of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, and Switzerland (including 3 of Europe's 4 economic engines: Lombardy, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and Baden-Württemberg), the Alpine Macro-region – EUSALP represents the economic heart and manufacturing hub of Europe. This Macro-region is therefore fully entitled to direct and influence the economic and industrial policies of the Europe of the future. It is from these premises that Boostalps was born: to connect institutions, companies, universities, and research centres in this macro-area to discuss new solutions, business models, and technologies linked to the green economy, and in particular the circular economy, with an interregional and supranational approach.

Marco Bonometti, President of Confindustria Lombardia, speaking at Palazzo Lombardia, stated that “sustainability in production processes is the key to business competitiveness in the global market, and the Alpine Macro-region represents the ideal context to contribute to the European Union's strategy on the circular economy, through the development and promotion of synergies between macro-regional strategic supply chains, with benefits for the area's competitiveness in the global market”.

“Lombard businesses – continues Bonometti – have invested heavily in the recovery sector and are among the leaders in Italy in industrial recycling (72.3% of special waste is recovered), and Lombardy is a leader in the number of material recovery plants (with 1,122 special waste management plants). There are two priorities on which the Italian EUSALP Presidency should now focus so that the circular economy translates into a concrete opportunity for growth: firstly, by eliminating the regulatory and administrative barriers that prevent businesses from continuing their virtuous path of technological innovation and efficient resource use. Businesses need certainty and clear rules to continue investing in the circular economy. The Lombard system has requested precise answers from the Ministry of the Environment on the subject of «end of waste». Furthermore, the classification of special waste and the creation of by-products regarding scrap, aggregates, foundry slag, and steelworks slag must be reviewed. Political timescales cannot hold back the momentum of the circular economy, a true element of industrial competitiveness; secondly, by promoting an interregional call for proposals to incentivise the circular economy, collaboration between supply chains, and partnership projects between the region's territories,” concludes Bonometti.

Raffaele Cattaneo, Regional Minister for Environment and Climate of Lombardy and head of the EUSALP Alpine Macro-region strategy, confirmed in his opening speech “the commitment of this EUSALP presidency to bring the competitiveness of the macro-region to a European interregional scale through the promotion of new job opportunities in the Green economy and innovative technology sectors. Today, innovation means sustainability. Looking to the future, we must build innovations capable of proposing paths towards the circular economy, energy transition, full sustainability, and the ability to face climate change. The wisdom of the Alpine territories and regions, together with a strong tradition, has historically been able to interpret the challenges of the circular economy and sustainability”. “A recent study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation shows that the circular economy, enabled by the technological revolution, would allow Europe to increase resource productivity by 3% per year. This would result in a benefit to the European economy of at least €600 billion per year between now and 2030 – concludes Cattaneo – It is estimated that the annual net benefits for EU companies implementing resource efficiency/circular economy measures such as waste prevention, material recovery, and product redesign would range from €245 billion to €604 billion, an average of 3-8% of annual turnover. This comes at a time when Europe certainly needs a renewed industrial policy and to attract new investment, in a context where the recovery of industrial investment post-crisis is slower compared to other mature markets such as Japan or the United States”.

For the Regional Minister for Economic Development of Lombardy Alessandro Mattinzoli “The issue of the environment represents an opportunity for us and a new way for economic development: offering competitiveness and sustainability to future generations in our territory by producing minimal waste and recovering materials is a priority objective. The circular economy is a fundamental and new topic for both designers and institutions. Therefore, it is necessary to incentivise and financially support innovative experimental projects that can translate into concrete operational paths and replicable best practices. Just last Monday, the call for proposals on this topic was launched; it is a pioneering call, and we hope it will be a success because it responds to the real needs of businesses”.

THE FIGURES FOR THE 8 ITALIAN REGIONS AND AUTONOMOUS PROVINCES IN EUSALP

- Aggregate GDP of €708.6 billion (equal to 23.7% of the entire EUSALP area, i.e., €2,990 billion);

- Employment of over 9.5 million workers (26.5% of the total of almost 36 million);

- Research and Development expenditure of just over €10 billion (equal to 12.5% of €82.45 billion);

- Annual tourist arrivals of 177 million people, equal to 34.2% of the EUSALP area, which reaches over 500 million tourists in a year, making the sector one of the most active and dynamic for the countries involved in general.

Attachments

• programma_BOOTSALPS_.pdf
• cs_Boostalps_3lug2019.pdf