ROADMAP

Title of the initiative

Development of a Monitoring Framework for the Circular Economy

Lead DG – responsible unit

DG ENV A2 (coordinated with unit B1)

DG GROW C2 (coordinated with unit C1)

DG ESTAT E2

Date of roadmap

05/04/2017

Likely Type of initiative

Non-legislative

Indicative Planning

Fourth quarter 2017

Additional Information

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm  

This Roadmap aims to inform stakeholders about the Commission's work in order to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to make available any relevant information that they may have. The Roadmap is provided for information purposes only and its content may change. This Roadmap does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content.

A. Context, Problem definition and Subsidiarity Check

Context

The transition to a more circular economy, where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste minimised, is an essential contribution to the EU's efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy. It is an opportunity to transform our economy, create jobs and generate new and sustainable competitive advantages for Europe.

The "EU action plan for the circular economy" points to the importance of monitoring progress in this transition, using the wide set of Eurostat and other official data already available and complementing the existing Resource Efficiency scoreboard 1 and Raw Materials scoreboard 2 , which were developed in recent years by the Commission. In this context, the action plan announces the preparation of a monitoring framework for the circular economy which will enable to effectively measure progress. 

Coordination will be ensured with EU reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (referred to in the Communication "Next steps for a sustainable European future" COM( 2016) 739  and which is also planned for 2017), e.g. for SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production. 

This initiative is included in the Commission's Work Programme 2017 .

Problem the initiative aims to tackle

It is important to be able to assess progress towards a circular economy, and to determine whether policies and actions at EU and Member State level are contributing to this objective.

Currently, a lot of relevant data for the circular economy is available via Member State reporting to Eurostat and other Commission services. Other official data, e.g. from the European Environment Agency, OECD and the International Resource Panel, can also give information on developments in this area.

However, no set of indicators currently exists that captures all the main elements of the circular economy along the lifecycle of materials, products and services and gives a solid understanding of the present and past performance of the EU as a whole, and of individual Member States with regard to the transition. The monitoring framework for the circular economy would fill that gap.

Subsidiarity check

The EU’s right to act is based on articles 173 and 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

The main problems addressed by this initiative cannot be addressed through exclusive action at the level of the Member States because it most likely would lead to different methods and incomparable information, thus not allowing for an overview at EU level.

An EU monitoring framework allows the use of harmonised indicators and data source at EU and Member State level, assuring comparability in tracking performance across Member States.

B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how

The objective of the monitoring framework is to assess progress towards a more circular economy at EU and national level, through a limited set of key, meaningful indicators that capture the main elements of the circular economy. This will also allow to assess the effectiveness of action at EU and national level, to identify best practices and differences of performances in specific areas, as well as the possible need for further action.

The framework will be developed in close cooperation with the European Environment Agency and in consultation with Member States, and will aim to cover areas such as food waste, security of supply for key raw materials, repair and reuse, waste generation, waste management, trade in secondary raw materials in the EU and with non-EU countries, and the use of recycled materials in products.

Consistency with the EU indicators for monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals will be a key consideration: where possible, indicators should be aligned in order to increase comparability and to avoid a proliferation of indicators.

Indicators will be chosen based on existing Eurostat data and other official data sources; all indicators included in the monitoring framework will meet the RACER (relevance, acceptability, credibility, easiness, robustness) criteria.

The added value of the monitoring framework will be reinforced by features such as the EU country coverage, periodical update and existence of time series. The initiative should be designed and developed in a process that ensures wide acceptance so it will serve as the reference point for Member States and the EU. 

C. Better regulation

Consultation strategy

The Commission will consult Member States through the statistical Working Group on Environmental accounts in the May 2017 meeting. This group deals with measuring material flows in the economy; the National Statistical Institutes of the Member States are members of this Working Group, which is chaired by Eurostat. The Working Group on Environmental accounts can provide feedback on technical aspects related to indicators. The documents for this Working Group, including eventually the comments by Member States, are publicly available in the repository CIRCABC . Other relevant expert groups such as the Raw Materials Supply Group could be consulted as well. 

A Circular Economy Stakeholders Conference took place on 9-10 March 2017 in Brussels. This brought together Member States, other EU institutions, public authorities, businesses and other stakeholders. A specific session discussed the monitoring framework on the circular economy.

Impact assessment

The direct involvement of key EU data providers like Eurostat, the Joint Research Centre and the EEA will ensure the identification of already existing indicators, to limit the administrative burden on Member States, and thus achieve the objectives at least cost.

At the same time, in some areas like food waste where there is an important knowledge gap, additional data might be requested from Member States, in the context of the Waste Directives proposal.

Overall, as most indicators already exist, this initiative is neither creating significant administrative burden nor significant impacts which necessitate an impact assessment.

Evaluations and fitness checks

The Commission has undertaken a Fitness check on Five Waste Stream Directives . In view of monitoring progress in the context of the European Semester, the Commission has published a Green economy factsheet including some key indicators on resource efficiency and has included a wider set of Green Growth indicators in the country reports. Further relevant background documents for this initiative include the EEA report No 2/2016 'Circular economy in Europe — Developing the knowledge base 3  and other research studies from industry, international organisations, NGOs and academia ( DESIRE project by NTNU/TNO/SEC/SERI/WI, ‘ Compiling and Refining of Economic and Environmental Accounts’ (CREEA) pro ject and The Global Resource Footprint of Nations  by NTNU/TNO/WU/Universiteit Leiden,  F USIONS project on Estimates of food waste levels , Circularity indicators  by Ellen MacArthur Foundation,  Material resources, productivity and the environment by OECD, Green Growth indicators by OECD, Measuring Inclusive Green Growth at the Country Level by the Green Growth Knowledge Platform, Global material flows and material productivity by UNEP International Resource Panel, How circular is the global economy? As assessment of material flows by Willi Haas et al., Recycling Rates of Metals by UNEP International Resource Panel, Indicators for a circular economy by European Academies Science Advisory Council,)  Circular economy: measuring innovation in the product chain by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

The on-going fitness check on environmental reporting 4 will also inform the work.