EU policies, such as the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism or the Green Deal, aim to stimulate and support the transition to a circular economy in the EU area. The member states are in different stages of progress of the transition towards a circular economy. There is a difference from country to country regarding the policies and support instruments for transition to circular economy.

The current research highlighted that, according to WEEE recycling level, there are several clusters of countries in the EU. This analysis used several clustering criteria: seniority in the EU structures, geographical situation and membership to the Euro area. Out of the three clustering criteria, membership to the Euro area seems to have the highest impact regarding the transition to circular economy.

The research methodology includes extensive literature review, critical analysis of best practice examples from different countries as well as comparative statistical analysis of relevant economic indicators.

The results of this analysis show that there are five clusters regarding the WEEE recycling in EU member states. Furthermore, the research highlighted that the strongest connection is with seniority in the EU structures, followed by Euro area membership.

Acknowledgement
This paper received financial support through the project entitled DECIDE - Development through entrepreneurial education and innovative doctoral and postdoctoral research, project code POCU/380/6/13/125031, project co-financed from the European Social Fund through the Operational Program Human Capital 2014 – 2020