Veil Jourde “Mornings” on the AGEC Law : Brune Poirson, Hélène VALADE and Xavier GUEANT share their outlook five years the law came into force

On the 12th of December 2024, Brune Poirson, Hélène Valade and Xavier Guéant shared with us the results and prospects of the “AGEC Law” (anti-waste for a circular economy) almost five years after it came into force.

Key points discussed with our associates Maxime de Guillenchmidt and Matthieu Ragot:

A clear, mobilizing text
The AGEC Act was designed to be an accessible text that everyone could easily understand.

An economic and industrial law
The AGEC Act is not an environmental protection law, but a text designed to change and perpetuate production and consumption patterns.

An accelerated transition
Economic operators, already well aware of the need to make the transition to sustainable production methods, have had to step up their efforts under the strong normative impetus provided by the AGEC Act.

With the benefit of almost five years’ experience of implementing the law, areas for improvement have been identified and adjustments are now essential:

• European productivity: France must do more to defend its political choices with European Union (EU) bodies, so that harmonization does not penalize operators who have invested massively to comply with the many measures of the AGEC Act.
• Monitoring and control: Better monitoring of the implementation of the AGEC Act is crucial. The supervisory authorities need to be better trained, and opportunities for dialogue between the administration and economic players need to be created downstream, so that certain constraints and specificities that could not be anticipated when the law was drawn up can be taken into account;
• Renewed discourse: It is urgent to reinvent political discourse to ensure the acceptability and effectiveness of policies. The economic opportunities offered by the ecological transition must be better understood and exploited, so that environmental regulations are not just a source of constraints, but also a vector for innovation and competitiveness. The aim must be to ensure economic growth that is decoupled from the use of resources.

We were also able to discuss the relationship between legal constraints, image protection and the expectations of consumers and talent.

Our warmest thanks go to our speakers Brune Poirson, Hélène Valade and Xavier Guéant for these interesting and engaging discussions, and to all the participants.