Network for Environmental Legislators recommends fast-tracking the circular economy in the EU

On March 19, GLOBE EU, the network for Environmental Legislators, and CEPS, Centre for European Policy Studies, organised a conference on fast-tracking a circular in the EU. At this event, an impressive line-up of speakers such as European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen and Secretary General of industriALL, Luc Triangle, among others, took stock of the Circular Economy Action Plan, provided a stakeholders' outlook, and looked for priorities for the next EU legislature.

Several key initiatives and actions have been put forward since the adoption of the 2015 CE Package, such as the new Directive on Waste, the EU Strategy for Plastics, the Single-use Plastics Directive, and the Monitoring Framework on progress towards a circular economy. Numerous Member States have adopted strategies and government-wide programmes for a circular economy too.

Despite the above advancements in EU and national level policy, achieving a large-scale industrial ‘circular’ transformation is by no means an easy task; multiple challenges need to be overcome in the next few years.  For example, demand for circular products and services is still too low, especially when compared with products developed through linear business models.

The next Commission will have to keep the circular economy as a strategic priority and ensure that all measures adopted so far are correctly implementation and enforced; but it will also have to accelerate progress in other policy areas.

For a full overview of the recommendations made to accelerate this progress, access the GLOBE EU paper on future CE policy here.