L’ECONOMIA CIRCOLARE ATTRAVERSO IL DIRITTO DELL’UNIONE EUROPEA. ANALISI DELLO STATO ATTUALE E DELLE SFIDE FUTURE PER UNA TRANSIZIONE SOSTENIBILE

The thesis critically analyses the evolution of the circular economy in EU law, not only as an environmental policy but as a transformative paradigm of the European integration process. It is placed between sustainability, competitiveness, innovation and democratic legitimacy, redefining legal categories and forms of multilevel governance. In the context of crisis (climate, energy, healthcare, geopolitics), circularity emerges as a flexible tool capable of strengthening the Green Deal and consensus around the European project, but also as an ambiguous concept susceptible to exploitation. Its entry into EU law was via regulatory stratification (from the 2015 package to the 2020 Action Plan), revealing tensions over the legal basis (internal market vs. environmental protection), with relevant implications for the effectiveness of policies. The principles of EU law (environmental and general) perform a guidance function, but sometimes remain evoked in a programmatic way. Legal instruments show a flexible but fragmented architecture: directives, regulations and soft law coexist, promoting innovation but risking ineffectiveness. The comparison between Italy and Spain highlights differences in governance and implementation: in Italy, strong fragmentation and State-Region tensions; in Spain, a more organic regulatory system but with diversity between autonomous communities. Democratic participation, while formally guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention and EU law, remains weak, reduced to consultative procedures, while it should be an enabler of the transition. The research, with a legal-critical and comparative approach, concludes that the circular economy is now a regulatory project under construction: endowed with transformative and performative potential, but marked by fragmentation, asymmetries and democratic deficits. The main challenges remain to strengthen its coherence, principles, multilevel governance and participation to transform it from a political narrative to a complete legal-political project and identity for the EU.