The Federal Council for Sustainable Development Belgium has issued a formal response to the Federal Belgian Action Plan on the Circular Economy. The council addressed issues regarding the substance and procedure of the action plan.

Procedural issues include the vagueness of the plan's exact intentions and deadlines as well as the lack of a better governance mechanism. Substantive issues include:

• more focus needed on the social challenges associated with the introduction of a circular economy
• more focus on the impact on the climate of increasing digitalisation
• recycling of critical metals, and
• importance of removing all known barriers (regulatory, fiscal, financial, etc.) to the circular transition.