Circular Economy Monitoring Framework: EU needs faster progress

The European Commission has revised its Circular Economy Monitoring Framework in an effort to use raw materials in a more sustainable way and reduce existing dependencies.

The revised framework enables a better tracking of progress towards a circular economy, which will allow for more targeted actions and measures. Newly introduced indicators include material footprint, waste prevention, sustainability, climate neutrality and resilience.

In particular, the Commission wants to use secondary raw materials more strictly, as they only account for 12% of total material consumption. At around 1%, this figure is even lower for rare earths such as lithium or gallium.

The circular economy is therefore viewed as a factor that will strengthen the resilience of the European Union.