Measuring the progress towards a resource-efficient European Union under the Europe 2020 strategy

The results indicate that Denmark received the highest ranking with a composite index value of 3.35, followed by Sweden (3.22) and Finland (3.13) in 2013. The establishment of more effective policies is necessary in the member states with the lowest scores in the Resource-Efficiency Capacity Index: Slovakia (1.8), Malta (1.92) and Poland (1.93). Although the European Union has made considerable progress in this issue in the last decade, many actions should still be faced to increase resource efficiency to inform more about the concept of life-cycle thinking to increase waste recycling, to make more attractive the system of public passenger transport, or to increase the energy efficiency of residential buildings, among others.