Analysis of the Circular Economy Performance of the European Union and Serbia

Abstract

Recently, due to its character, more and more attention has been paid to the application of the circular economy principle at the level of the national economy and in all sectors. Based on this, in this study, the performances of the circular economy of the countries of the European Union and Serbia are comparatively analyzed based on the AHP-EDAS method. The research in this study using the given methodology showed that the top five countries in terms of circular economy performance are in order: Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia, and Austria. The worst performances of the circular economy are in Romania. The positioning of the leading countries of the European Union is as follows: Germany is in sixth place, France is in eleventh place and Italy is in ninth place. The positioning is satisfactory. Serbia is positioned in the seventeenth place. Compared to the leading countries of the European Union, it is positioned worse. It is better positioned than Croatia (twenty-third place). Compared to Slovenia (twelfth place), it is positioned worse. To improve the performance of the circular economy, it is necessary, in principle, to manage dependence on the import of materials, municipal waste, waste, renewable energy, and other relevant factors as efficiently as possible. In this sense, it is necessary to define a strategy and an action plan for achieving the expected value of the key parameters of the circular economy. The application of the circular economy principle contributes to the preservation of the environment.

Keywords

• performance
• circular economy
• european union
• serbia
• ahp-edas method