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2026_coussa_ce_policy_instruments_cesys
Journal article

Closing or curving the loop? An evaluation of EU circular economy policy instruments through R9, ReSOLVE, and socio-technical transition frameworks

BP2-STS

  • 2026
Published in:
  • Cleaner Environmental Systems. - Wiley. - 2026, vol. 21, no. June 2026, p. 100445
Circular Economy
Policy Instruments
Public policy
Sustainability transition
Circular economy governance
European Union
English Since 2015, the European Union (EU) has advanced ambitious circular economy (CE) objectives through successive policy initiatives, yet the extent to which policy instruments enable transformative changes remains underexplored. Drawing on policy instrument theory and socio-technical transition analysis, this study systematically examines 30 EU CE legislative acts, mapping policy instruments across product lifecycle stages, circularity hierarchies (R9 framework), and business model strategies (ReSOLVE framework) to assess whether EU CE policymaking fosters systemic transformation or primarily optimizes existing linear regimes. The results reveal a pronounced downstream orientation: recycling, efficiency, and loop/optimize strategies dominate, while upstream prevention, sufficiency, sharing, and virtualization remain largely neglected. Instruments supporting niche development, demand-side transformation, and radical business model innovation are limited. From a multi-level perspective, the policy mix primarily stabilizes incumbent socio-technical regimes rather than enabling regime destabilization or the scaling of transformative niches. This study provides a comprehensive instrument-level mapping of EU CE policymaking and advances theory by operationalizing the tension between technocratic optimization and transformative circularity. It shows that limitations in the depth of the EU circular transition stem not only from implementation challenges but from structural design misalignment within the policy mix itself. The findings identify actionable multi-level policy levers addressing both regime transformation and niche support strategies to better align future EU CE policymaking with transformative transition pathways.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
License
Rights reserved
Open access status
green
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/336217
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