The CircE Project (European regions toward Circular Economy) was an Interreg Europe project implemented during the 2014-2020 financing period. It involved eight partners at regional and local level from Bulgaria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the UK and various European social and economic stakeholders.

The objective was to develop action plans that, steering specific policy instruments (plans and programmes), would support and improve the transition to a circular economy in specific business sectors: food waste, textiles, biomass, plastics, built environment, WEEE/strategic metals, tourism and raw materials. Each Project Partner decided which sectors to concentrate on, taking into account the relative importance of each sector for the regional economy and its potential in terms of “circular” growth.

The project identified a series of opportunities (stemming from circularity gaps) that should enhance the transition to a circular economy model and analysed the barriers hindering these opportunities and the policy options that could overcome them.

Lastly, action plans were developed that list the actions to be implemented within the policy instruments identified both at the beginning of the project and during its implementation.