Towards Circular Cities – comparison analysis of the circular economy definitions within the Amsterdam and Łódź spatial policies

The European Union sees its cities as potential frontrunners in the transition to the Circular Economy (CE), which is a tool to achieve targets set in the European Green Deal (EDG). The various Circular City Visions (CCV) published in different EU regions are based on the CE definition. However, more investigation needs to be done to discover how the differences in culture, politics, spatial management, and economy between Member States affect CE implementation strategies for cities, as well as the common understanding and definition of CE and CCV. Moreover, the CCV is a rather new topic among scholars, and the plurality of CE definitions creates the risk of blurring the concept. This article aims to verify the consistency of definitions used in different policies – especially in EU Member States, with a particular focus on the multi-speed Europe concept. To verify the differences and similarities between the policies on which the spatial policies of the EU Member States are based, a two-stage research was carried out. The case studies were selected among the EU cities. A representative from the Netherlands – Amsterdam – was selected for the so-called "Inner Six" of the EU. On the other hand, Łódź, Poland, was chosen as a representative of the Visegrad Group countries (V4).