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 “the concept of CE and its practice have almost exclusively been developed and led by practitioners, i.e., policy-makers, businesses, […]etc.”, while “the scientific research content of CE remains largely unexplored” (J. Korhonen et al., Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations, in Ecological Economics, 143 (2018) 37–46). In more specific terms, the main question that the Module addresses is whether (and to what extent) the existing regulatory framework in place at EU level is adequate and explore what should be done in the new few years to help the EU as a whole to move in the right direction. In this sense, the underpinning point of view is that the law can certainly play a relevant role as an enabling factor for the transition, as the law is not neutral in a kind of “systemic shift” such as the one required to abandon a “linear economy approach” to embrace a “circular economy approach”.
This is particularly so in line with the main goals that have been endorsed in the Green Deal launched by the EU Commission, and aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of the EU and its citizens.
Objectives: The analysis focuses in particular on the existing EU legislation, i.e. the one on waste management and eco-design of products, that might be mostly affected by the circular economy. The activities look at regulatory issues from a broad perspective, which combines the traditional legal analysis with the contributions of experts belonging to other disciplines (economists, scientists, engineers, etc.) together with business actors and the civil society, along a marked interdisciplinary perspective.
Activities and outputs: sets of lectures within the legal courses concerning the EU and its policies already existing at the Department of Business and Law (for students of economics and business) as well as other teaching activities organised in cooperation with the Europe Direct Siena Centre, located within the University of Siena (for students of all University departments, high school students, business, civil society, stakeholders and the general public).
Outcomes: dissemination through lectures, seminars and workshops; broader dissemination through the dedicated website of the project and within the activities of the BRIGHT event, namely the European Researchers’ Night event organised by the University of Siena, in co-operation with Region of Tuscany with the support of EU funds. In particular, BRIGHT will help to disseminate knowledge about the topic of circular economy for sustainable development to civil society at large.