Shaping the Circular Economy within the European Union Environmental and Climate Change Policies : Experiences, Challenges and Steps Forward

The circular economy is an irreversible global goal, which is needed to scale up action at the European Union (EU) level and globally, especially in the context of the environmental policy and the one on climate change. It is a major concern and action area of the new proposed European Green Deal adopted in December 2019. In December 2015, the European Commission adopted the first Circular Economy Action Plan, which contains a host of initiatives to reduce waste and to increase the longevity of products and materials, in order to stimulate Europe's transition towards a circular economy. Three years after, the first Circular Economy Action Plan was fully implemented. As an important pillar supporting the European Green Deal, thereafter the European Commission published a new Circular Economy Action Plan on 11 March 2020 to update the original 2015 Plan, which aims to lay out a ‘future-oriented agenda for achieving a cleaner and more competitive Europe’. It is therefore time to review the implementation of these Plans and summarize the experiences of the EU on shaping the circular economy, in order to make Europe ‘a world leader in circular economy and clean technologies’