The EXPRA delegation, including Joachim Quoden (Managing Director), Hester Klein Lankhorst (President & CEO Verpact, The Netherlands), Helena Nylén (CEO NPA, Sweden), Paul Christiaens (Verpact), and Monika Romenska (EXPRA), met with Commissioner Jessika Roswall and her team DG ENV (Jan Ceyssens, Deputy Head of Cabinet, and Luis Planas Herrera, Member of Cabinet) to discuss upcoming EU legislation affecting EXPRA and its members, and to highlight the essential role of EPR and PROs in ensuring the success of the Circular Economy.
Commissioner Roswall welcomed the delegation and addressed current challenges in the recycling sector, including the upcoming Circular Economy Act (CEA) and Environmental Omnibus legislation. She emphasized the need for harmonization and simplification of EPR systems and invited EXPRA to support policy implementation where necessary.
EXPRA’s Managing Director briefed the Commissioner on EXPRA’s role as a hub for sharing best practices, underscoring the critical contribution of EPR systems in sustaining the recycling sector, currently injecting over €10 billion annually into collection, sorting, and recycling across Europe. Examples from Belgium (Fost Plus), France (CITEO), and the Netherlands (Verpact) illustrated effective practices.
Hester Klein Lankhorst detailed the Dutch Delta Plan, emphasizing national initiatives to reinforce circularity, expand recycling capacity, and strengthen market demand. She highlighted the benefits of single-PRO systems for ambitious investments and stressed the importance of efficiency, eco-modulation, and flexibility in national collection systems. Helena Nylén provided the Swedish perspective, noting the challenges of multiple PROs competing in the market, which can limit investments in circularity, and called for reliable, comparable statistics across Member States.
The discussion also covered key legislative and operational points, including implementation of Art. 8a of the Waste Framework Directive, EPR as a Service of General Economic Interest (SGEI), and the importance of safeguarding EU resources against cheap imports. Commissioner Roswall highlighted the potential of public procurement and scale-up measures to boost demand for EU recycled materials.
Both parties agreed to maintain ongoing dialogue and further exchanges. The meeting reaffirmed EXPRA’s objectives: highlighting EPR best practices, supporting EPR as the backbone of circularity, addressing multi-PRO and state interference challenges, and advocating for industry-run governance and EPR as SGEI. Additional high-level meetings with DG ENV are planned for Q1 2026 following internal restructuring.