Joint Accelerator Session on Private Sector Initiatives for the Circular Economy

Related material:

Agenda

Photos from the meeting

Summary of the session

Link to the Circular Economy Roadmaps:

Albania and the key findings

North Macedonia and the key findings

As part of the World Circular Economy Forum 2024 in Brussels, on 18 April 2024, the OECD South East Europe Regional Programme and the European Commission Directorate General for the Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) organised an Accelerator session: Driving the circular economy transition with private sector initiatives.

The session emphasised the pivotal role of businesses in implementing the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan and propelling the circular transition in the EU Neighbourhoods: the Western Balkans, the Eastern Partnership, and the Southern Neighbourhood. Entrepreneurs and businesses as catalysts for change, can help reshape value chains, and redesign products and services to minimise resource use, waste and pollution while advancing carbon neutrality and inclusivity.

Opened by Mr. Mathieu Bousquet, Director, DG NEAR, the session featured a keynote from Mr. Karim Dahou, Deputy Director and Head of China Unit at the OECD Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate. He stressed the importance of the circular economy for both environmental sustainability and economic resilience, highlighting its potential to enhance competitiveness, and innovation in production and consumption practices, offering significant business opportunities in efficiency or cost gains and new market creation. Mr. Dahou noted the OECD’s role in supporting governments through policy guidance and technical assistance, citing progress in the Western Balkans with initiatives like a regional peer dialogue platform and the development of circular economy roadmaps in Albania and North Macedonia alongside the ongoing implementation support.

At the panel discussion that followed, businesses and entrepreneurs from Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, and North Macedonia presented their innovative approaches to circularity, demonstrating efforts to create jobs, develop circular products, and preserve natural capital and biodiversity amid rising material consumption.

The event concluded with an official ceremony to launch of the Circular Economy Roadmaps of Albania and North Macedonia in the presence of H.E. Mr. Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s ambassador to the EU and H.E. Mr. Zulfi Ismaili, North Macedonia’s ambassador to the EU, the DG NEAR Directors, Mr. Mathieu Bousquet and Ms. Valentina Superti, Mr. Dahou and other high-level OECD officials, as well as the circular economy experts from the Western Balkans and other regions taking part in the Forum.