Financing The Circular Economy Through Common Agricultural Policy

The concept of the circular economy includes the three "R" - reducing the use of resources, recycling and reusing products while these objectives are compatible with the principles of "green" economic development that give central importance to the protection of the environment and the sustainable use of resources. Given that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has recently gone through an accelerated "greening" process, the objective of this research is to present how the funding granted to Member States, through this common EU policy, has contributed to the development of the circular economy in the entire European rural economy. The research methodology uses a comparative analysis of the funding granted for the objectives of the circular economy through the CAP within Pillar I (Agriculture and Markets), but also within Pillar II (Rural Development). Also, in a case study, it will be presented how Romania managed to finance the objectives of the circular economy through the CAP. The limits of our research are related to the fact that the most recently available data, provided by the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission, are published for the year 2021. To complete this data, we will also use some references to the allocations foreseen by the member states within the PAC Strategic Plans (for the period 2023-2027) because we believe that a qualitative analysis of the objectives related to the "green" development of the rural space, can also be useful to the Romanian authorities for the development of future actions and national strategies in this field.