In conclusions adopted without debate on Monday 16 October, the EU Council takes note of the recommendations of the Court of Auditors, which highlighted the slow progress made under the first Circular Economy Action Plan despite more than ten billion euros of funds mobilised by the EU between 2015 and 2020 (see EUROPE 13214/14).
While the Court of Auditors focused on the lack of circularity in production, the EU Council considers that the EU institution’s report is a useful contribution to accelerating progress towards “circular systems of production and consumption”.
It welcomes the revised monitoring framework presented by the Commission, which includes additional indicators to help monitor product design activities, and supports further efforts to fill data gaps relating to, among other things, circular product design.
The EU Council invites the Commission to assess, together with the Member States, whether the Structural Funds regulations and guidelines and all other available sources of funding adequately facilitate and encourage the financing of projects along the circular economy value chain, in particular where the environmental impact is higher, including from the perspective of circular design, and whether other EU-wide economic instruments could be beneficial in this regard.
To see the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/92k (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)