The circular economy - Romania’s paradigm from the perspective of EU principles and directions for 2050

The European Parliament presents on its official website information on how the European Union intends to reach a circular economy by 2050. The action plans and directions, the key sectors of the circular economy, as well as the ways of waste management and transport are presented. On the other hand, the Department for Sustainable Development within the Romanian government presents its own vision of the circular economy. It should be appreciated that the Romanian perspective is based on studies that are based on the perceptions of citizens. The aim of our research is to highlight the cohesion between the Romanian perspective and the European vision in terms of how they understood to harmonize their principles and directions of action in the field of circular economy. It is known that Romania joined the EU on January 1, 2007 and has 33 members in the European Parliament. Currently about 77% of Romania’s exports are made to the EU (Germany 23%, Italy 11% and France 7%) and Romania’s imports come in proportion of 75% from the other EU member states (Germany 20%, Italy 9% and Hungary 7%). Although Romania has committed to adopt the euro as soon as it meets the necessary conditions and is in the process of joining the Schengen area, these goals are not yet fulfilled in 2022. The findings of our research allow us to conclude that beyond strategies and action plans, action and its consequences are important. Romania’s paradigm in terms of the circular economy can be considered surprising in its similarity and antagonistic in its results. Our conclusions allow the opening of new directions of research regarding the perspectives of the circular economy through economic and social resilience.