CEN proposal for the creation of a new technical committee on “Circular Economy“

SIS (Swedish Institute for Standards,) submits to CEN a proposal for the creation of a new Technical Committee on “Circular Economy”.

Scope: Standardization in the field of Circular Economy to develop horizontal standards relating to European specific prerequisites, legislation, and policy. The standards aim to provide recommendations, requirements, methodologies and tools to support and measure transition towards a circular economy.

The deliverables aim to unify international and European standardization while contributing to a sustainable green economy.

Globally, circular economy is increasingly permeating the political discourse. Regionally, the European Commission have adopted a very ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) that in turn has opened up for massive policy development to push the European market to maximize our contribution to sustainable development. The European Commission have pointed towards standards as an important tool to reach a common understanding of what the circular economy entails and how to implement it at a European scale.

A Chair Advisory Group (CAG) and a number of potential working groups are envisioned, however please note that these are initial ideas on what to include in the structure of the proposed TC and is open for changes and adjustments.

• Chair Advisory Group (CAG
• WG 1 Frameworks and terminology
• WG 2 Information sharing
• WG 3 Extended producer responsibility
• WG 4 Circular business models
• WG 5 Circular procurement

A wide range of groups are relating to the work. The intention is to cooperate with and to establish liaisons with relevant groups, to be decided in the TC upon approval. A list of potentially related work and list of potentially relevant documents has been compiled.

Since circular economy is a horizontal matter and the proposed deliverables are applicable in any organization, public or private, regardless of their size, location and field of activity, all types of stakeholder categories are affected.

• Industry and commerce, including small and medium sized enterprises (SME)
• Government
• Consumers
• Labour
• Academic and research bodies
• Non-governmental organisations (NGO),
• Standards application business

In case of national interest, Bulgaria can support the creation of CEN/TC on “Circular Economy”. If the establishment of CEN/TC is accepted by the national standards bodies – members of CEN, BDS shall participate in the work of the newly established committee.

The national stakeholders can provide their position on the proposal for this new field of CEN technical activity by 11 of July 2023 to seniorexpert Ekaterina Slavova, e-mail: Ekaterina.Slavova@bds-bg.org ,tel: +359 2 81 74 579.

For more information about the proposal see: