Opening Keynote Speech of Frans Timmermans at the Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference

Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

I am happy to be here today welcoming you to our annual Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference. As with the previous conferences, the number of those wishing to participate greatly exceeded the space we have available. People are probably also watching online.

It does show how important the circular economy is to all of us, and also to our friends and colleagues who have to settle for watching via web stream this time. Good morning, wherever you are.

I must say that by now this is starting to feel like a family reunion, because I see many of the same faces each time we organise these conferences. So whilst we must talk about recycling, I have to be careful not to recycle too much of my old speeches!

We first met like this in 2015. At that time, our cause was not necessarily flavour of the month. We were swimming a little bit against the tide when we spoke about the importance of the circular economy. And to many it was still the great unknown.

So I am really very proud, and you should all be very proud, of the shift that has occurred in the past three years and how people now see these issues.

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