For a few years now the EESC has actively advocated the need for a transition to a circular economy (CE), and has adopted a number of opinions and communications establishing a clear position:

• the EESC strongly supports a better implementation of the EU waste hierarchy;
• the EESC supports the Commission's ambition to make sure that recycled raw materials can be traded on an EU-wide robust secondary raw material market;
• the CE should take advantage of the many new economic and business models building on sharing economy, collaborative economy, and functional economy.
• the transition towards circularity will benefit certain production sectors and undermine others. It is crucial to identify upstream winners and losers, in order to plan all necessary support measures (training, etc.) for a fair transition;
• the EESC supports the use of economic and market-based instruments to accelerate the transition. It also calls for facilitating innovation in the field of resource-efficiency;
• it strongly recommends that civil society organisations, social partners, local authorities and national governments actively participate in the transition around a shared strategic vision.

In opinions concerning the circular economy adopted in December 2014 and April 2016, the EESC made the case for a European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, whose aim would be to facilitate civil society consultation, cooperation between national, regional and sectoral networks and the exchange of expertise, information and best practices.

The EESC and the Commission officially launched the Platform during the Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference of March 2017.

At EESC during the 2017 Conference - Stakeholders working together to give their initial input about the Platform and its objectives