Today EuroCommerce and ERRT celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Retail Forum for Sustainability and the Retail Environmental Action Programme (REAP) in a joint event organized together with the European Commission. We value the close and constructive partnership we have enjoyed with the European Commission and other signatories in the Retail Environmental Action Programme. We are now looking forward to the next chapter.

In 2009, the European Commission launched their Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan. It recognised the important contribution retailers make to sustainability and to influencing sustainable consumption. This generated the Retailers’ Environmental Action Plan, a voluntary initiative co-chaired by retailers and the European Commission, aimed at reducing environmental impacts in the retail sector and its supply chain, promoting more sustainable products, and providing better information to consumers.

Over those years, sustainability has become mainstream. We are now glad to be working towards the next phase of our cooperation within the Commission’s efforts around the European Green Deal, which is being presented today.

Retailers and wholesalers in Europe expressed their support for the new Commission under Ursula von der Leyen.  Speaking today after the convincing European Parliament vote in favour of the new team, EuroCommerce Director-General Christian Verschueren said:

“We are pleased to be able to mark the start of a new Commission with a clear set of priorities and bold ambitions. We fully support coherent action to address climate change and sustainability under the Green Deal, but will be stressing the need for this to be pursued in ways which engage all parts of the supply chain, including consumers, in a positive way. We look forward to working with the Commission on making Europe fit for the digital age. Digitalisation is already transforming our sector, and we have to ensure that SMEs and consumers can also benefit directly. Above all, we will be stressing the need for open markets and addressing the rising tide of protectionism both in and outside the EU. We need to remember that the Single Market is the keystone of European integration and our future prosperity.”

After six years of operation, the work of the European Supply Chain Initiative (SCI), a joint initiative launched by several EU level associations with the aim of promoting fairness in commercial relations along the food supply chain, will wind down at the end of 2019. The European SCI mechanisms and tools developed over the years remain available to all stakeholders. The SCI’s Principles of Good Practice, which have been widely endorsed along the food supply chain, will continue to be promoted as an important standard. National dialogue platforms and registered companies remain free to continue to apply and promote the Principles on a voluntary basis.

Speaking at a joint Metro and EuroCommerce conference, Digitalisation of SMEs: How to make it possible, in Brussels today EuroCommerce, speaking on behalf of its Vice-President Patricia Hoogstraaten, called for a proactive European SME policy reflecting the major challenges arising from digitalisation and changes in consumer behaviour and their impact on small retailers and wholesalers, and said:

“Small retailers and wholesalers are often leaders in innovation and in adapting to fast-changing customer demand. But they struggle with gaining access to expertise and resources needed to take full advantage of the new technology. We very much support the call of the Network of the SME Envoys for a forward-looking EU SME policy and are pleased that Ursula von der Leyen announced a dedicated SME strategy as a priority for her Presidency of the European Commission. SMEs are vital to the EU economy as a whole, but vulnerable; they need regulatory action and financial support, tailored to their ways of operating, and targeted at enabling them to benefit fully from a vibrant European Digital Single Market.”