The revised Circular Economy Package, published in December 2015, became a victim of the so-called better regulation agenda of the European Commission. Under the pressure of business lobby groups, it was transformed from a proposal having, primarily, a sustainability approach, recognising resource scarcity and planetary limits, into a proposal geared around economic and short term considerations.
This briefing outlines how the European Commissions’ so called ’better regulation’ – a host of changes to the law making process in Europe – delayed and weakened the Circular Economy Package and why it should serve as a warning shot about the dire consequences of the better regulation agenda.