Implementing a circular economy: An EU perspective

Speaking in October 2024 at Environment Ireland, Circular Economy Director for the European Commission’s DG Environment, Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, said that a greater focus must be placed on implementation, including measures beyond enforcement, if ambitions for a circular economy are to be realised across member states.

Setting the context whereby the swing of the political pendulum of the European Parliament towards the centre and centre-right had posed as potentially hazardous to the European Green Deal, Ciobanu-Dordea explains that political guidelines issued by returned European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, indicate an understanding that a change of direction would not make good political or economic sense.

“The European Green Deal remains a compass for many policies across the likes of energy, transport, biodiversity protection, and the circular economy,” he states. “This is because there continues to be a great deal of support from the grassroots of our societies.”

The Circular Economy Director indicates a recognition that shifting political priorities would be destructive to investment cycles, most of which extend beyond the political cycles in Brussels or in national capitals.

However, he is adamant that continuation of the policies of the European Green Deal does not mean a rigidity against feedback from industry, of consumers, and of the European Parliament.

Implementation

In order to achieve the ambitious legislative agenda of the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Director believes more focus must be placed on implementation.

In July 2023, the European Commission revised the circular economy monitoring framework and offered what Ciobanu-Dordea describes as a “health check” on the implementation of three key pieces of circular legislation, namely the Waste Framework Directive, the Packaging Directive, and the Landfill Directive.

Findings were that more than half of (18 out of 27 member states) are at risk of not meeting the 2025 targets for preparing for re-use and recycling of municipal waste; 21 member states are at risk of not meeting one or more targets for specific packaging waste streams; and 13 member states are at risk of not achieving the 10 per cent municipal solid waste discharge target by 2035.

Ciobanu-Dordea says that this “seriously unsatisfactory” implementation of the Directives has consequences on the enforcement power of the European Commission. Outlining his belief that DG Environment’s enforcement agenda is being dominated by the launch of infringements relating to circular economy legislation, he says there is a need for broader measures.

“Enforcement needs to remain a priority, but the situation is much more complex, and we need to put to work more instruments,” he says. “Can we prevent the problems before they become chronic? This is what we need to think about.”

Ciobanu-Dordea raises the situation currently faced by the European Commission whereby the Commission does not have the legislative powers to reject a request for an extension to various targets by up to 10 member states.

“What this tells us that we need to continue to work on implementation, but we cannot rely only on enforcement. We need to do something to catch the eye of the politicians, and also of the public opinion.”

Ciobanu-Dordea outlines plans to be put to the new Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall, who took office on 1 December 2024, for a series of engagements across national capitals which goes beyond environment ministers, and includes economic and business stakeholders at both national and local level.

“It does not make sense to always run towards the future with more legislation. We need to take care of how we implement the decision that have been taken.”

Targets

Ciobanu-Dordea says that a change of approach also applies to the setting of targets, which he explains do not guarantee progress. In June 2024, member states’ environment ministers collectively called upon the Commission to put in motion a political process towards the definition of a material consumption reduction target for the European Union and across member states, however, as the Circular Economy Director points out: “We are not meeting less ambitious targets for reducing landfilling, or for better collecting our packaging waste.

“It is not beneficial. It is not credible. We should first work at the implementation and attainment of the more modest targets for which we lag, and when we have attained them, we should then think about bigger things,” he states.

“In the meantime, we believe that we can contribute to the effective implementation of material consumption improvements through pragmatic and operational initiatives, that lead to controlled impacts and to control improvements.”

Circular Economy Act

Turning to the future, the Circular Economy Director says that implementation must remain high on the political agenda both for existing, new, and future regulations. In her political guidelines, von der Leyen indicated her intention for the Commission to present a Circular Economy Act, which Ciobanu-Dordea says will be aimed at improving the functioning of the single market for secondary raw materials, which will assist with meeting demand for critical raw materials and for resource efficiency in general.

Indicating the likelihood of “omnibus regulation” – meaning regulations that will cover or will amend several existing pieces of legislation in order to put economic incentives where some legal obligations exist – he says: “Member states and economic operators should move forward towards more circularity, not just because they are constrained by the power of the law, but they should find opportunity where there is also a legal obligation.”

Assessing the decision by member states and the European Parliament to end the exportation of plastic waste outside of OECD countries, and speculating that a similar approach may be taken towards textiles and electronic waste, the Circular Economy Director says that the potential accumulation of waste must be viewed as a resource opportunity.

“We need to turn these mountains of waste into opportunities. We will also try also to reverse some bad economics. The key economic feature currently is that, in spite of the economics of the environmental and climate externalities, and sometimes energy externalities, the price of virgin materials is lower than the price of recyclates. We must redefine the balance between virgin and recycled.”

Concluding, Ciobanu-Dordea suggests an initiative to address this imbalance will come forward for public consultation in 2025.