The Heart of Europe Collaboration

How can cross-border cooperation accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Europe’s industrial heartland?

This panel from the Circular Valley Forum 2025 brings together three senior public-sector leaders: Susanne Hagenkort-Rieger, Director General of the Economic Policy Department at the Ministry of Economy in North Rhine-Westphalia; Brigitte Mouligneau, Transition Manager at OVAM and Circular Flanders; and Arnoud Passenier, Circular Economy Advisor to the Government of the Netherlands.

They discuss how their regions structure circular economy policy, where joint priorities lie, and why trilateral collaboration is essential for scaling circular value chains across chemicals, construction and battery materials. The conversation highlights the need for shared infrastructures, coordinated industry support and policy alignment to make circular business models viable at European scale.

This episode is part of our series in collaboration with Circular Valley. The series features recorded sessions from the Circular Valley Forum 2025.

Video Impression

People

Susanne Hagenkort-Rieger (Director General of the Economic Policy Department, Ministry of Economy, NRW
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-hagenkort-rieger/

Brigitte Mouligneau (Transition Manager, OVAM, Flanders)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigitte-mouligneau-67098b5/

Arnoud Passenier (Circular Economy Advisor to the Government, the Netherlands) at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnoud-passenier-9366414

Chapters

00:00 Introduction & Regional Approaches
08:59 The Challenge: Building Scale for Business Cases
11:02 The Solution: Heart of Europe Trilateral Collaboration
12:36 From Strategy to Implementation

About

Circular Valley is a European hub for circular economy innovation, bringing together international startups, industry, science and policymakers to accelerate the shift toward circular value creation. It is based in Wuppertal, one of Europe’s most dynamic economic regions, and supports cross-sector collaboration to close material loops, advance enabling policy and increase public understanding of circular solutions.

Further Links

https://circular-valley.org

Transcript

[00:00:00] Introduction & Regional Approaches

Brigitte Mouligneau: the three of us, if we work together… in the heart of Europe on the circular economy. can work throughout the whole value chain. we can show Europe that cross-border circular economy is possible.

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: Please welcome with me on stage Susanne Hagenkort-Rieger, Brigitte Mouligneau and Arnoud Passenier. As was said before, two years ago we started… Brigitte, Mrs. Hagenkort, please take a seat. ⁓ It was here that the collaboration between North Rhine-Westphalia and Flanders was signed and we’d like to talk about what has happened in the meantime. And I’m very privileged and pleased to welcome three senior representatives. ⁓ To my right to your left Brigitte Molinault. She is actually a lawyer but circular economy expert she is managing circular Flanders and advising over and the Flemish waste agency then we have an out person here and out is the senior circular economy advisor from the Ministry of infrastructure and water management in the Netherlands and I’m out you have been a very active driver of of the Netherlands coming on board here. Thank you very much for that. And Susanne Hagenkort-Rieger, she is ⁓ the general director in our North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry and some say she’s the chief economist, a very data-driven lady. So ⁓ welcome and thank you all for being here.

Brigitte Mouligneau: you

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: I would like to kick it off with a question and please short answers focusing on what’s really important and what characterizes your respective countries when it comes to circular economy and What are the things you do particularly? Well, maybe maybe one or two things that stand out Brigitte if you want to start or

Brigitte Mouligneau: We got the mandate to reduce our material footprint with 30 % by 2030. ⁓ It’s a challenge. So we work on six thematic agendas, like for instance construction, chemicals, bioeconomy and so on. But our real strength is the public-private partnership. because you need to have this systemic approach in order to get results. We need our government agencies, we need our businesses, our sector federations who are also present here today in this room. ⁓ We need our researchers and the financial sector and ⁓ last but not least, also the people who can work in society, our local governments. and our NGOs. So we have all of them in our partnership and that is vital. Another thing that I’m really proud of is that we managed to create a CE monitor with more than 100 indicators to make sure that we measure if we are going in the right direction. I can assure you that the path is still long. Although we do hundreds of experiments, we try to scale up the most interesting good practices, but there’s still a lot of work.

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: public-private partnerships and monitoring something we look forward to learn from. Thank you very much. Arnoud.

Arnoud Passenier: Yes, well, the Netherlands has a long history already for circuit economy policies, which has brought political support in the Netherlands. So in 2016, we had our first national program on circuit economy. And that was typically something which helped us to create awareness in society, in local communities, to the industry. And what we have seen is that that has developed a real movement towards circularity. But nowadays, we see that we are changing our policies more in the direction of ⁓ scaling up circular innovations. We have to think bigger. And that’s why it’s very ⁓ useful that we that we start with the collaboration with North Rhine-Westphalia and Flanders because in Europe we need a strong economy, we need a strong circular economy and we need the help of each other ⁓ to create that ⁓ scale and maybe also an industry where the circular economy is the default. I think that’s… ⁓ our inspiration to take the step forward to work closely together with you and North Rhine-Westphalia and Flanders as well.

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: Wonderful, thank you so much for coming on board here. ⁓ And, Hagenkort-Rieger.

Susanne Hagenkort-Rieger: Yes, thank you. I can underline what Arnoud just said. ⁓ In North Rhine-Westphalia, we are convinced that the circular economy will ⁓ drive job creation, will drive sustainable growth, will drive industrial resilience, and therefore we are building a clear pathway that links environmental goals with economic power. And we are ⁓ developing this strategy together. with the Ministry of Environment. Our main focus is on growing new business models and products that keep materials in use as long as possible. So for us, circular economy is both a smart business choice and an environmental necessity. ⁓ expanding recycling capacities for raw materials, critical raw materials such as rare earths is a top priority to us in an international situation which is really challenging. And together with ⁓ our coordination office which we established in September at the E4C together with the round table on circular value creation and together with the circular value foundation, we try to put ideas into action across borders. ⁓ And this is exactly what our strategy will build on. A survey says that circular economy projects may add up to 12 billion euros to German economy by 2030. around 180,000 new jobs and this is what we want to drive with our strategy.

[00:08:59] The Challenge: Building Scale for Business Cases

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: Wonderful. So, we started with three very concrete projects. The first one was greening the chemical industry. chemical industry. Second one was the future of battery materials here in Europe. And the third one is building material. Obviously, the biggest emission stream. something we took on. And maybe if I could have that one picture showing what we doing in the platform ⁓ of the circular construction material. And while we are waiting for that, a question. So what have you done on the side of the administrations? You already alluded to that, ⁓ Susanne, but Arnoud, ⁓ so what’s going on behind the scenes? And I know you have been very active. Maybe the two of you can add to what Susanne said already. Arnoud?

Arnoud Passenier: Yes, well, maybe it’s really timely. We are ready for scaling up our industry and the circular ⁓ businesses and circular innovations. But we need to have a larger scale of ⁓ production and creating that value chain. Because the lack of scale… makes it impossible to have a sound business case. I don’t have to tell you. So we are ⁓ at the stage that we have to have that leapfrogging towards ⁓ big industry. which helps us create that future. And not only in recycling, because a lot of people think circular economy is about recycling, but also on refurbishment, repair, et cetera. There are lots of opportunities to scale up in that field as well.

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: Wonderful. Brigitte.

[00:11:02] The Solution: Heart of Europe Trilateral Collaboration

Brigitte Mouligneau: Well, ⁓ two years ago our Minister President signed the MOU ⁓ in order to connect our two public-private networks and ⁓ I think it was a good idea. ⁓ In the meantime I feel really at home here in North Rhine-Westphalen. because we’ve been working together very closely on these three topics, but what we’ve noticed is in the meantime that geopolitics are changing and it’s going much faster than what we expected, so we have to move much faster. So therefore, it was a good idea to get the Netherlands involved as well, because the three of us, if we work together… in the heart of Europe on the circular economy. can work throughout the whole value chain. We can make these real strategic projects on the circular economy. ⁓ If we can combine our industry forces, our innovation power of our SMEs, and then three government ⁓ agencies, government organizations who are really into a circular economy in their policy, we can show Europe that cross-border circular economy is possible.

[00:12:36] From Strategy to Implementation

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: Perfect. ⁓ Coming back to the day-to-day, so we’ll have the signing of the trilateral cooperation at 5.30. I ⁓ trust that excites you as much as it does excite me. ⁓ Anything else on the program today that you look forward to? Maybe one thing from each. Susanne?

Susanne Hagenkort-Rieger: Well, I actually don’t want to pick a particular session. I want to pick all these people here. We have an audience from science, from business, from startups, from civil society, from politics. And I want to invite you to join us in scaling up innovations, in exchanging knowledge, in implementing solutions for circularity. I think together we can form a more powerful, stronger, more sustainable and more resilient Europe. Therefore it’s very important that we work together because we have the same challenges, the same chances and we can learn from each other and support each other. have met, for example, when we visited the Chemelot campus, is a historic, no, a traditional. chemical region in the Netherlands. And there, ⁓ this campus, to me, is an innovation hotspot that bridges a traditional chemical industry region with circular economy ⁓ leadership. And this is why we work together.

Arnoud Passenier: . Yes, and what strikes me, because there are several ⁓ sectors and themes which are really challenging. If we see ⁓ in our region, we have a lot of… problems with our housing, our infrastructure, especially because of also the military threats. have to make our ⁓ infrastructure resilient. So that’s one example where I see the opportunity to introduce the circular solutions into our challenges. in our region. I think this is the right time to act now and to act at scale.

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: We are acting today. What are you looking for? Brigitte?

Brigitte Mouligneau: ⁓ I hope that today we can come to concrete projects to work together. And especially I have some meetings on circular construction and I’m looking forward to meet my friends in the meantime ⁓ there from the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphal to find these good strategic projects where we can learn from each other and maybe ⁓ start to do projects cross-border.

Dr. Carsten Gerhardt: Perfect. Meeting friends, learning from each other. Thank you so much and have a good day.