Regional development of circular economy in the European Union: a multidimensional analysis

Within the framework of EU policies and measures to develop the Circular Economy (CE) model, the paper sheds light on a relevant and important topic not so well debated in the literature, i.e. the adoption of CE at the regional level. Our key research question is: how do European Regions differ in terms of implementation of the CE? In order to address this question, we build two composite indicators - the Circular Economy Static Index (CESI) and the Circular Economy Dynamic Index (CEDI) - that permitted both a static and a dynamic evaluation of the CE performance of European regions (NUTS 2). This double reading of CE performances has allowed us to classify the European regions into four groups, on the basis of the results of our analysis. The “Never give up” group (1) is characterized by above-median performance for both the composite indicators; this group includes some of the most developed and innovative regions in Europe (including France: Île de France, Belgium: Brabant Wallon, Antwerpen and Région de Bruxelles, Germany: Berlin and Hamburg, and Spain: Catalunya). The group “Satiated and sleepy regions” (2), namely those regions where CESI is performing well, but the CEDI shows low values, incorporates many of the richest regions in Europe, for example, Freiburg, Germany and the Comunidad de Madrid, Spain and includes some of the more developed regions in Italy. The “The best is yet to come” group (3), is characterized by low values for CESI and high performance in CEDI, most of those falling into these groups are regions from Eastern Europe. The “We don’t mind“ group (4), is composed of the regions with modest values on both Indexes, and is characterized by the presence of very low performing regions, including the majority of Italian regions. The novelty of this approach with respect to literature and the policy implications of our findings are then discussed.