Romania's Perspectives on the Transition to the Circular Economy in an EU Context

The main objective of the paper is to highlight Romania's perspectives on the transition process towards the circular economy, in respect with the tendencies registered at the level of the European Union. To this end, our methodology involved the selection of four indicators, each one being viewed as representative for one area of interest specified in the circular economy monitoring framework established by the European Commission, namely: Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per domestic material consumption; Recycling rate of municipal waste; Circular material use rate; Gross investment in tangible goods-percentage of gross domestic product. On the basis of data series provided by the Eurostat database, our study employed a quantitative approach, by using the econometric analysis of time series. For each selected indicator, time series-specific approximation and prediction models were constructed; against this background, we were able to reveal accurate forecasts of the analysed variables, with respect to different time horizons. Detailed analysis of the data series resulting from the research proved that on the long run, there are favourable premises for improving Romania's performance in adopting the circular economic model, on the basis of low values for the indicator Generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes per domestic material consumption, of an ascending trend for the indicator Circular material use rate and of maintaining the values of the Gross investment in tangible goods-percentage of gross domestic product indicator above the EU-27 average.

Automated summary

The main objective of this paper is to highlight Romania's perspectives on transitioning towards the circular economy, in line with the trends in the European Union. A quantitative approach was utilized, using four selected indicators and econometric analysis of time series data. The analysis revealed favorable conditions for Romania in adopting the circular economic model, based on low waste generation, an increasing circular material use rate, and above-average gross investment in tangible goods as a percentage of GDP.