EU Circular Economy Package 2015 and results
During the year 2015, the European Commission (EC) developed an ambitious action plan with the one big goal of stimulating the transition to a circular economy in Europe. This plan was based on the implementation of 54 legislative and non-legislative actions and was aimed to cover the full economic cycle, not just waste reduction targets.
The plan covered several policy areas, material flows, and sectors alongside cross-cutting measures to support this systemic change through innovation and investments. And with its implementation very important policy measures were introduced, among which the following stand out:
- Turning the Strategy for Plastic into a Circular Economy to change the way plastics and plastic products are designed, produced, used, and recycled. This action included the requirement that all plastic packaging must be recyclable by 2030.
- Creating the Circular Economy Funding Support Platform as a tool to facilitate access to finance for circular economy initiatives.
- Developing and establishing the European Union’s Zero-Waste Programme to promote an infrastructural change in local waste management, favouring the adoption by municipalities of waste separation so that waste streams are sorted at source, and for residual waste to be progressively reduced.
- Developing the Eco-Design Working Plan, which lays down requirements on energy use for specific product groups.
- Establishing a common monitoring framework to measure progress towards a circular economy at European and national level.
For their part, the legislative proposals were put forward by the European Commission along with the plan and included targets for landfill, reuse, and recycling, to be met by 2030 and 2035, along with new obligations for separate collection of textile and bio-waste.
In this context, more than 10 billion euros of public funding was allocated to the transition to a circular economy between 2016 and 2020.
By 2019, a little more than three years after the adoption of the Circular Economy Package 2015, the plan was fully completed. The 54 mentioned actions which it included had been delivered.
On 4 March 2019, the European Commission adopted a comprehensive report on the implementation of the Circular Economy Package 2018, which presented the main achievements under the plan and sketched out future challenges to achieve the transition of the European economy towards a circular economy, where pressure on natural resources and ecosystems is minimised.
The most remarkable results that this plan has produced are basically the following:
- Now, the EU is globally recognized as a leader in circular economy policymaking.
- The waste legislation was adopted in 2018, following negotiations with the European Parliament and Member States in the European Council.
- Jobs related to circular economy activities have increased in the EU.
- The action plan has encouraged 14 Member States, 8 regions, and 11 cities to put forward circular economy strategies.
- The plan has engaged policymakers across different policy areas and levels of governance, as well as various stakeholders, favouring a necessary collaborative approach.
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