Food Waste

This article was published under the 2015-2020 European Committee of the Regions mandate.

Summary

NAT-VI/008

Last updated
3 December 2019

15/06/2016
Adopted

Objective

In order to meet the economic, environmental and social challenges created by all this waste, the European Committee of the regions’ rapporteur, Ossi Martikainen (FI/ALDE), Municipal Councillor of Lapinlahti, called on the EU to adopt a minimum target of reducing food waste by 30% by 2025. In his report adopted at the June plenary, he encourages local and regional authorities to take action by putting in place effective prevention and awareness programmes.

– Setting a specific target at the EU level: reduction objective of at least 30% by 2025 (following up on the CoR resolution of Sustainable food;
– Common methodology and measurements at the EU level;
– CoR membership at the new EU Platform on food waste.

Impact

21 November 2017 Ossi Martikainen presented some best practices to reduce food waste at the Municipal and Regional Waste Management and Prevention Conference in the European Committee of the Regions, highlighting that the most challenging is changing people’s attitudes and behaviour.

7 November 2017 At the EU Platform on Food losses and Food waste, Martikainen spoke about sustainable food procurement.

12 October 2017 During the European Week of Regions and Cities; Martikainen contributed to the workshop “Regions and cities: pioneers in creating more sustainable food systems”.

October 2017 Ossi Martikainen is elected chair of the NAT commission, a position in which he will continue to focus on reducing food waste.

March & June 2017 EU Platform on food losses and food waste meetings with Ossi Martikainen.

29 November 2016 The #FoodwasteEU Platform launched, with Ossi Martikainen on the panel as a representative of the local and regional authorities.

Our  rapporteur Ossi Martikainen is a member of the European Commission’s platform on food waste. Chaired by the Commission, it will include competent authorities from member states, EU umbrella organisations and federations involved in food waste prevention, NGOs, and EU bodies in an effort to meet its UN food waste goal by 2030. Martikainen will share his experiences and make sure that the voice of local and regional authorities in terms of preventing food waste is heard at this level.

October 2016 As part of the 2016 European Week of Regions and Cities the ALDE group in the European Committee of the Regions held on 11 October a workshop on food waste. Chaired by Agnès Durdu, First Vice-President of the ALDE-CoR group and Ossi Martikainen who was one of the speakers in his capacity as CoR rapporteur on Food Waste. The workshop explored ways how local and regional authorities can play an essential role in preventing and reducing food waste and facilitating the transition to a circular economy.

Discussion with EP rapporteur Biljana Borzan MEP

October 2016 Discussion with ALDE shadow rapporteur Ulrike Müller MEP

Ossi MARTIKAINEN

Rapporteur

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