Launch of the Commission’s consultations on the Circular Economy Act

SUMMARY

The European Commission has launched consultations and a call for evidence for the upcoming Circular Economy Act (CEA). The CEA aims to accelerate the transition to a more circular economy, increasing the EU’s economic security, resilience, competitiveness, and decarbonisation. Members can find more details here.

MORE DETAILS

The CEA aims to help create sufficient supply and demand for secondary raw materials (including critical ones) and a true single market for waste and secondary raw materials. Both supply and demand-side legislative and non-legislative measures will be analysed, complemented by simplification of procedures and reduced administrative burdens.

The CEA’s objectives can be structured around two main pillars:

• E-waste (electronic and electrical equipment), the fastest growing waste stream at 2% per year, of which less than 40% is recycled, to ensure its effective collection and recycling and to generate market demand for the secondary critical raw materials they contain. Existing rules may need to be revised to make them fit-for-purpose and simpler.
• A mix of interventions to foster the single market for waste, secondary raw materials, and their use in products could be considered. This may cover, among others, the reform of End-of-Waste criteria; the simplification, digitalisation, and extension of extended producer responsibility schemes; and setting mandatory, targeted, impactful, and implementable criteria for public procurement of circular goods, services, and works to stimulate EU demand.

According to the intel received from the Commission’s representatives, the second pillar can be of particular interest for the textile/sporting goods industry.

The ongoing consultations will support reaching an alignment with key EU initiatives, such as the Competitiveness Compass, the Single Market Strategy, the Steel and Metals Action Plan, and the implementation of relevant recently adopted legislations, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, and the Critical Raw Materials Act.

NEXT STEPS

As a next step, the team will analyse the consultation, prepare a draft response, and gather your feedback in August.

In the meantime, we encourage you to review the consultation document and start considering any comments or concerns you would like us to raise on your behalf. We are well aware teams are currently thin, so we will send a proposal to make it easier.

The CEA is expected to be adopted in Q4/2026 and according to the attached document, it may have a form of a regulation.

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