The European Commission is due to propose a Circular Economy Act in the third quarter of 2026, designed to build a single market for secondary raw materials and push the EU towards its target of doubling its circularity rate to 24 per cent by 2030.
The current rate, according to the European Environment Agency, stands at 11.8 per cent. In other words, Europe needs to roughly double the share of recycled materials in its economy in four years, starting from a base that has barely moved in a decade. That gap between ambition and reality is the honest starting point for any assessment of where European circularity actually stands.
The argument for circularity is not fantasy. The Commission and the EEA both frame it as a way to reduce resource pressure, lower emissions, and create employment. Some countries already show what progress can look like. According to Eurostat’s 2024 data, the Netherlands had a circular material use rate of 32.7 per cent, followed by Belgium at 22.7 per cent and Italy at 21.6 per cent. That proves the model can move beyond slogans where systems are aligned.
The Economics Still Work Against It
The national figures also reveal the problem.
Romania recorded a circularity rate of just 1.3 per cent in 2024. Finland and Ireland each reached 2 per cent. Europe talks about one circular transition, but in practice it has many different starting lines, and most of them are far behind the target. The EEA notes that material circularity has been low and relatively stable in recent years, with both recycling volumes and material use stagnating since 2014. The 2030 target requires a pace of change the continent has not yet demonstrated it can sustain.
Many circular activities remain more labour-intensive, more fragmented, and less subsidised than the linear model they are supposed to replace. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has argued that policy levers, especially around VAT, labour costs, and procurement rules, are needed because resale and repair still operate inside an economic system built for new production.
The repair and resale case is especially visible in fashion, where circular business models represent a multi-billion dollar opportunity that current tax and regulatory structures still penalise. A circular economy can create work without automatically creating fair work, since the EEA also warns that some circular jobs are low-paid or insecure.
Real, But Not Yet Normal
The honest answer is neither fantasy nor success story.
The circular economy is real where rules, infrastructure, and incentives line up. It is weaker where repair remains expensive, recycling markets are thin, and businesses still make more money from churn than durability. The European Parliament’s own briefing on the incoming Circular Economy Act notes that EU policy has focused too heavily on recycling and waste management whilst neglecting upstream measures such as prevention, reuse, and product longevity. That is a structural bias baked into a decade of policy.
Europe already has enough evidence to know circularity can work. The Netherlands demonstrates it; so does Belgium. What the continent still lacks is an economy where circular choices feel ordinary rather than virtuous or niche. The circular economy is real in pockets, sectors, and countries. It becomes something else only when leaders talk as though those pockets already add up to a system. They do not, at least not yet.
Keep up with Daily Euro Times for more updates
Read also:
Economic Diplomacy: Establishing Safety Zones in Ukraine and Lebanon
Smuggled and Forged: The Houthis’ Shadow Economy
EU Perception Shift: Albania Gains Ground While Croatia Appears Unsettled
