During EUROPEN Single Market Day, Sophia Zakari, Director for Enterprise Policy and Legal Affairs, argued that SMEs are driving the circular economy by turning waste into raw materials, but face fragmentation because waste definitions and rules differ across EU member states. She said this fragmentation undermines the single market and hampers the circulation of secondary raw materials. Zakari proposed the Circular Economy Act as a tool to harmonise waste definitions and enable cross-border reuse, while facilitating a single digital platform to simplify reporting under Extended Producer Responsibility schemes. SMEunited cautioned that rigid measures, such as quotas for reused content, could raise costs; Zakari emphasized that ambitions should be matched with flexibility. The discussion also featured Arnas Liauksminas, Bruno Tobback, and Neil Willoughby.
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