European climate legislation and the Green New Deal. A strategic and teleological regulation

The regulation (EU) 2021/1119 sets the objective of climate neutrality in the Union by 2050 and is part of the framework of regulatory reforms for the implementation of the Green New Deal (GND). It is therefore a European legislative act, binding and directly applicable, which aims to eliminate the emission of climate-altering substances in the European territory in compliance with the Paris Agreement of 2015. The new Regulation on adaptation to climate change has four important elements that provide new interpretative keys to the legal framework of the GND and its effects on public administration. First, the triple role, of negotiator, mediator and executer, assumed by the EU, which confirms the presence of a multi-level governance. Second, the choice to adopt a common regulation that directs and orients, setting a strategy, but without identifying the specific regulatory measures to be implemented. Third, the use of technical-scientific advice to conform and standardize policies on the subject. Finally, the call for public participation, which favors the involvement of citizens as co-regulators. The analysis reveals a framework consistent with the current state of progress of the European Green New Deal, which is located on the ridge between the political-programmatic manifesto and a binding regulatory system, but has both strengths and weaknesses.