The “Circular and Green Economy” working group of the Network of the European Environment Protection Agencies, in which Ihobe is involved together with environmental agencies from Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, has recently published the European report “Measuring progress towards a circular economy: socio-economic indicators”.

Through the work carried out by Ihobe and Eustat, the Basque Country has contributed to analysing the state of play as regards monitoring the Circular Economy, providing its expertise in measuring the circular transition.

Deliberations on the report will feed into the forthcoming review of the “Circular Economy Monitoring Framework” by the European Union. The proposals in the document point out that the European indicators, which were updated in May 2023, do not make it possible to assess progress towards a real circular transition.

Therefore, following the principles of the "Bellagio Declaration for determining indicators" of the European Environment Agency, activities based around the circular economy, employment and, above all, the circular turnover of companies should be redefined.

The joint work between Eustat and Ihobe in recent years, integrated into the annual innovation survey, aroused particular interest among the other entities that make up the European Network of Environment Protection Agencies as a possible monitoring scheme that would make it possible to take appropriate decisions based on data in the field of environmental policy.

This information and the analysis contained in the publication “Circular Economy Indicators. Basque Country 2021” formed the basis for the specific chapter on circular transition indicators in the Basque Country in this European report.