It seems the heat of the plastics treaty talks has claimed its first casualty. Luis Vayas Valdivieso, who has chaired the international negotiations since late 2023, recently announced his resignation…
Waste Framework Directive (WFD): The new Waste Framework Directive was published in the EU Official Journal on 26 September. This revision focused mainly on two aspects: food waste, with targets for reducing waste by 2030, and textile waste.
EU Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR): On 25 September, MEP Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany) asked a question for written answer to the Commission on the EU Waste Shipment Regulation and the export of mixed municipal waste.
Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal: The seventh meeting of the expert working group on the review of Annexes to the Basel Convention will take place from 24 to 26 November in Geneva.
Call for a moratorium on new waste incineration in the EU: On 30 September, a coalition of 156 civil society organisations, led by the NGO Zero Waste Europe, called for ‘an immediate halt to the approval and construction of new waste incineration facilities’ in a joint letter to EU institutions.
PFAS: The two committees (RAC and SEAC) responsible for evaluating the proposed universal restriction of PFAS met in September. In an episode of the ECHA’s podcast released online on 24 September, the two presidents review the progress made.
Substances of Concern (SOC): In a letter dated 30 September, around forty NGOs ask the European Commission to ‘respect [its] commitment to transparency and chemical traceability of products’.
Soil Monitoring Law: On 29 September, the Council formally adopted the soil monitoring directive, establishing the first-ever EU-wide framework for monitoring soils, with the goal of achieving healthy soils across Europe by 2050.
Commission agenda: The European Commission has published the provisional agenda for the weekly meetings of the College until the end of November. It plans to present its bioeconomy strategy on 12 November.
Shein: The French OECD National Contact Point (NCP) identified, on 29 September, a number of ‘non-conformities’ in Shein’s practices with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
EU Taxonomy Regulation: Today, the Members of the ECON Committee and the ENVI Committee will hold a joint scrutiny session with Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque on the latest delegated act adopted under the EU Taxonomy Regulation in the context of the Omnibus I package.
Europe’s Environment 2025 – EEA report: On 29 September, the European Environment Agency published Europe’s Environment 2025. The report stresses that climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat to Europe’s competitiveness, which depends on natural resources.
EFRAG reports: On 25 September, EFRAG released two complementary reports to support the application of the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs (VSME). The first report provides practical support to SMEs that wish to report their GHG emissions based on VSME. The second report provides an overview of the 223 platforms and initiatives for SMEs reporting that answered EFRAG’s call for interest.
EFRAG Survey on Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs (VSME): On 2 October, following the issuance of the European Commission’s Recommendation on the VSME on 30 July 2025, EFRAG launched a market acceptance progress survey.
DG Environment: An updated organisational chart of the Commission’s DG ENV shows the latest developments within the Directorate.
