This year’s EU Green Week focused on putting circularity at the heart of Europe’s future, given its potential to drive sustainable competitiveness, reduce waste and promote innovation. Across its three days, over 2,000 people attended in person as well as close to 3,000 online.

Building on the policy discussions on 3-4 June, the CCRI’s stakeholder event brought together circular innovators to share solutions and inspire local action. Featuring a wealth of compelling success stories from the CCRI community, it explored the pivotal role of cities, regions, businesses and industries in driving the circular transition from the bottom up, translating EU ambitions into solutions.

John Bell, Director of the Healthy Planet Directorate in the Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, opened the day by talking about the importance of research and innovation in Europe’s green transition. 

“Circularity is a top priority for research and innovation”, he said, with €3.5 billion invested in the circular economy under the last framework programme. Having been a key part of the European Green Deal, it is now at the heart of the new Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal: its plan for competitiveness and decarbonisation. 

In line with the CCRI’s approach, Mr Bell stressed the need to drive the circular economy by testing circular solutions on the ground in Europe’s cities and regions.

“Europe is choosing science; science is choosing circularity,” he said. “Circularity needs innovation, but it needs places to scale innovation. We need to be place-based – making things happen in real places. We need to localise innovation and research.”

The event also enabled discussions between different groups in the community, as speakers from a local government, business, youth and civil society all shared their views and experiences in the first plenary session. 

Aziza Akhmouch, of CCRI Partner the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, also presented their new report on the circular economy in EU cities and regions, offering policy recommendations based on two years of dialogue and a survey of over 60 cities and regions, including 10 CCRI Fellows.

The event featured breakout sessions on topics such as the built environment, bioeconomy, biodiversity, citizen engagement, business and resilience. Attendees had the chance to share ideas, knowledge and success stories, discuss barriers, and explore innovative solutions with others in the community.

In the plenary session on moving from policy to practice, Deputy Mayor Thomas Van Oppens shared the experience of Leuven, a CCRI Fellow. The city has a climate-neutral stakeholder network, involves major buildings like the university and hospital in its circularity plans, and has a materials bank to reuse deconstructed materials in new buildings. 

“The built environment is a good place to start”, he advised, as heating buildings accounts for three-quarters of CO2 emissions. “If you want to become climate neutral, circular materials need to be a core part of your climate strategy. Recycling is good, but reuse is a lot better.’

Several CCRI Projects shared success stories of circular bioeconomy in action. BioBoost has created successful business models for underused biomass like agri-food, forest and wool, while P2GreeN is working with innovative businesses to create bio-fertilisers matching the quality of regular ones.

In another session, CCRI Pilot Tampere Region and CCRI Fellow Møre and Romsdal shared how participating in the CCRI has helped them to foster industrial symbiosis and form public-private partnerships. These partnerships have been crucial for building a shared vision to scale up sustainable solutions and shift to a circular economy.

The day’s final plenary session focused on scaling up circular practices across Europe, including the crucial role of financing. As noted by Jonas Byström of CCRI Partner the European Investment Bank (EIB), “financing is often the difference between talking about the circular economy and actually doing it”. 

The EIB’s Circular City Centre - C3 helps cities to finance and implement their circular projects. Almost a quarter of EIB financing in 2024 – some €17.2 billion – went to sustainable projects in cities and regions. Since 2020, it has financed over 150 circular projects with more than €5 billion.

Away from the main stage, attendees had plenty of opportunities to network and find potential partners for their circular projects. They also had the chance to explore the work of the CCRI and the ECESP at their stands. Many CCRI Pilots, Fellows, Projects and Partners also hosted stands to present their own circular economy initiatives.

Closing the event, Astrid Ladefoged, Head of Green Transitions at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, spoke about the transformative power of collective action and the need for momentum and upscaling. 

The CCRI has a central role in driving Europe’s circular future, providing tailored, practical support to cities and regions and a unique environment where policymakers, project promoters, innovators, advisors and financiers can work together to make circularity a reality. 

“In the first phase of the CCRI we focused on promoting good practices. Now, we can take those learning points and go one step further in focusing on the more targeted interventions that are needed,” Ms Ladefoged said. 

“If circularity is a destination, then many people have started to travel,” she added, encouraging community members to speed up their circular journeys. “We should be proud of what we have created and continue – it is not easy, but do not give up.”

On Friday 6 June, members of the CCRI community stayed in Brussels to attend the fourth CCRI workshop. This was an opportunity to celebrate the progress of the initiative, including the achievements of its four Thematic Working Groups as well as the many successful matches and partnerships between CCRI cities, regions, projects and partners.

Attendees told stories of the circular solutions they have successful developed in the context of the CCRI, offered practical insights to help other cities and regions, and shared their suggestions to help shape the future of CCRI activities.

If you were not able to attend the stakeholder event, of if you’d like to catch up on the parallel breakout sessions, you can watch back the recordings anytime on the EU Green Week website. You can also find a selection of photographs from the event on the website. Subscribe to our newsletter and keep an eye out for our more detailed event report, which will soon be published on the CCRI website.