*2.5. DEA Method in the Evaluation of CE Goals Achievement*

The DEA method plays an important role in comparative performance assessment. It allows the comparison of the efficiency of countries, regions, organisations, enterprises, and other entities characterised by the same set of inputs and outputs. DEA is broadly applied in various fields of public policy and business endeavours. It is recognised as a useful instrument of efficiency improvement and competitiveness increase [135].

The conducted literature review led to the identification of the fields of DEA application to circular economy problems. (Table 1).


**Table 1.** DEA applications in assessing the implementation of the circular economy.

The identified DEA applications concerned the assessment of CE implementation on the country (No 2, 7, 9), regional (No 4, 6), city (No 4, 8), and industrial sector (No 1, 3, 5, 6) levels. Study objectives and deployed DEA models are presented in Table 1. None of the reviewed works tackles the challenge of evaluating the comparative performance of the European Union countries in the implementation of the CE principles on the basis of a system of indicators as stipulated by the EU methodology of CE assessment (Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions on a Monitoring Framework For the Circular Economy). The presented paper fills in this research gap and offers a comprehensive approach to a comparative analysis of the EU states' performance in achieving the goals of the circular economy.
