Circular Economy Living Lab for Monitoring and Indicators (CircEUIar), a four-year EU-funded research project (2021-2024), has strengthened the set of indicators available to monitor Europe’s progress towards a circular economy. The work responds to growing policy demand for reliable and harmonised data to assess how effectively resources are being used, reused, and kept in circulation across the EU.

The project, carried out under the Horizon Europe framework, reviewed existing metrics and developed new ones to cover gaps in monitoring. It focused on material flows, consumption patterns, and environmental impacts, aiming to provide a clearer picture of circularity at both EU and Member State levels. The resulting indicators feed directly into the EU’s Circular Economy Monitoring Framework, supporting evidence-based policymaking.

Key Insights

• Broader coverage: New indicators expand beyond waste management to capture resource use, product lifetimes, secondary raw materials, and circular business models.
• Data harmonisation: Work on aligning methodologies improves comparability of circularity data across Member States.
• Policy relevance: The strengthened toolkit will inform the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and national strategies.
• Future development: The project identifies remaining data gaps and recommends ongoing investment in research and statistical capacity to refine circular economy metrics.

By advancing the measurement of circularity, this project equips policymakers, businesses, and researchers with better tools to track progress and design effective strategies for resource efficiency and sustainability in Europe.

Read the full report here.