THE TRANSITION TOWARDS TO THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: EUROPEAN SMES' TRAJECTORIES

The transition towards to the circular economy of European SMEs' is one of the items on the agenda in Europe. The aim of the paper is evaluate if this drive should transform our SMEs and keep European production sustainable and competitive. The paper presented a comparison analysis on the circular economy SMEs transition in the 13 sectors EU Member States. The study highlights and evaluates the transition in 13 sectors with highest SMEs performance. Five trajectories have been identified and evaluated in order to investigate, the transition degree of each sector towards to the circular economy. The analysis shows a heterogeneous transition with both sectors and Countries in which the presence of best practices, have been realized, but, can not be transfer to other sectors. A series of barriers to the transition from linear to circular economy are composed in the SMEs sectors.