While implementing the EU Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP 2020), Member States are encouraged to advance circularity at a national level by adopting policies and initiatives that go beyond EU regulations, while preserving the Single Market.

These CE country profiles are based on information reported by the Eionet Network and, in particular, the Eionet Group on circular economy and resource use in the second quarter of 2022. The information was reviewed and edited by the European Topic Centre on circular economy and resource use. A selection of Eurostat data was made to further complement this country profile.

These profiles provide a good snapshot of the status of CE in EU countries. These are useful for regional and local public authorities to: a) have an overview of the CE status in their own country; b) learn about the status in other EU countries (e.g. about applied CE monitoring frameworks and indicators as well as targets). Examples of public and private policy initiatives from other EU countries can be used as inspiration to see how others are addressing similar challenges. Good practice examples of policy initiatives cover a variety of themes – some examples include national/regional/local financial support programmes, public procurement, digitilisation of waste tracking, change in consumption pattern and consumer behavior. Cities and regions can use these snapshots to find where the policy gaps are and how these gaps can be adressed to support the development and implementation of Circular Systemic Solutions, and vice versa.