Circular Economy in the Liberalization Era. Is Public Law prepared to address this new legal paradigm?

Since the birth of environmental Law, its impact on economic development has been a constant.The so-called “most relevant paradigm changes” in the EU Law and policies bring about that debate again.On one hand, the ambitious impulse of liberalization and administrative simplification, especially after the approval of the “Bolkestein Directive”; on the other, its compatibility with the Circular Economy (CE) Strategy that seeks to curb environmental collapse. CE was meant to produce a “complete systemic change … not only in technologies, but also in organization, society, financing methods and policies”.CE requires strong public planning and support.A comprehensive view of CE calls to go beyond waste and focus on design, production and consumption.The dynamics of multi-level, public-private and between companies’ collaboration, necessary for CE, can collide with elements clearly prevalent in the current legal order, such as liberalization for an internal market or Competition law.