The Jean Monnet Module “EU Law and Circular Economy for Sustainable Development” (ELCE4SD) aims at exploring the EU legal dimension of the transition to the circular economy in light of the accomplishment of the goals of the EU Green Deal relating, in particular, the sustainable development of the EU and its citizens.

The EU has endorsed the need for a transition to a circular economy (CE) since 2015, when the “EU action plan for the Circular Economy” was adopted by the European Commission, with the aim “to ensure that the right regulatory framework is in place for the development of the circular economy in the single market”. More recently, the EU started to tackle the regulatory dimension of the transition to a circular economy, by adopting the 2018 Circular Economy Package, which includes the 2018 EU Strategy for Plastics in the Circular Economy and Directive 2019/904/EU on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment was presented. By doing so, the EU is in line with the findings of other initiatives developed in a broader international perspective, such as those promoted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which include “a suitable set of international environmental rules” among the enabling factors that may help delivering a transition to a circular economy.

Starting from such premises, the Module investigates the role that EU law might play in the process of a shift towards a circular economy as instrument for enhancing the sustainable development within the EU.

The Module is based on the finding that... Read more