The European Commission announced the launch of a new consultation and call for evidence for its upcoming Circular Economy Act, kicking off the process towards launching new regulations aimed at accelerating the transition to a more circular economy, and targeting goals to double the EU’s circularity rate, and establish the EU as “the world leader on the circular economy by 2030.”
The Commission said that it aims to solve a series of problems through its planned upcoming act, including the EU’s dependence on the import of many raw materials, including critical ones, as well as Europe’s insufficient resource efficiency and the lack of internalization of the environmental externalities of the linear economy.
The Commission added that while the transition to a circular economy is essential to reduce its dependence, improve competitiveness and reduce pressure on the environment, but noted that the circularity rate in the EU has remained nearly flat over the past several years, reaching only 11.8% in 2023 from 10.7% in 2010.
In order to tackle these issues, key goals of the upcoming act include to helping to establish a single market for secondary raw materials, increase the supply of high-quality recycled materials and stimulate demand for these materials in the EU, the Commission said.
While not yet presenting specific policy proposals, the Commission identified two main pillars likely to form the focus of the upcoming act, including targeting e-waste, with measures aimed at ensuring effective collection and recycling, and to generate marketing demand for the secondary critical raw materials, and; a series of measures to foster the single market for waste, secondary raw materials and their use in products, such as reforming end of waste criteria, simplifying, digitalizing and extending extended producer responsibility schemes, and setting mandatory criteria for public procurement of circular goods and services in order to stimulate demand.
The consultation and call for evidence will remain open through November 6, 2025, with the Commission aiming to adopt the Circular Economy Act in 2026.
Click here to access the consultation and call for evidence.
