Roadmap to Resource Efficiency

The efficient use of resources is to restructure the EU economic system by 2050, so that both the economy grows and its competitiveness increases, thereby allowing a high living-standard, and resources are preserved and the environment significantly less harmed. To this end, the Commission defines medium-term milestones and outlines the actions necessary to achieve these milestones by 2020. 

The Commission should not put forward blanket regulations for resource efficiency but should instead only focus on those areas in which resource use engenders damage to third parties and where consumers or companies do not have sufficient incentives to reduce energy consumption. Besides, it should not prescribe binding planned economy efficiency targets, as this would push the economic efficiency of resource savings into the background.