Circular economy action plan - European Commission
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Circular economy action plan

The EU’s circular action plan is paving the way for a cleaner and more competitive Europe.

Objectives

Measures introduced under the action plan aim to

  • make sustainable products the norm in the EU
  • empower consumers and public buyers
  • focus on the sectors that use most resources and where the potential for circularity is high such as: electronics and ICT, batteries and vehicles, packaging, plastics, textiles, construction and buildings, food, water and nutrients
  • ensure less waste
  • make circularity work for people, regions and cities
  • lead global efforts on circular economy

Actions

Most of the legal acts foreseen under the Circular Economy Action Plan have been adopted and have entered into force:

A Sustainable product policy framework

Key Product value chains

  • The new Regulation on packaging waste (PPWR) entered into force in February 2025. Replacing the previous Directive, it harmonises national measures further - strengthening the internal market - notably for secondary raw materials, manufacturing, recycling and reuse.
  • A new Batteries Regulation was adopted in July 2023, ensuring that batteries placed on the EU market are sustainable and circular throughout their whole life cycle.
  • In March 2022 the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles was adopted.
  • The Commission is currently evaluating the Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) to explore possibilities to simplify it and determine whether a review is needed.
  • A new Regulation on end-of-life vehicles was proposed in 2023.

Less Waste More Value

Monitoring

It is essential to monitor progress towards a circular economy, and its direct and indirect benefits. This allows the EU and national authorities to assess whether policies are effective and to identify best practices.

In 2023, the Commission revised the circular economy monitoring framework, previously adopted in 2018. The revision adds new indicators on

  • material footprint and resource productivity - to monitor material efficiency
  • consumption footprint – to monitor if EU consumption fits within planetary boundaries

The new framework supports the EU’s circular economy and climate neutrality ambitions under the European Green Deal.

Timeline

Previous and upcoming actions and initiatives

  1. May 2023
    European Commission revises the circular economy monitoring framework
  2. 11 March 2020
    European Commission adopted new circular economy action plan
  3. December 2015
    European Commission adopted the first circular economy action plan

    All 54 actions under this plan have been delivered or are being implemented.