Over the past decade, the EU has sought to consolidate its reputation as a global standard-setter, not only in competition and data protection but across the entire digital policy spectrum resulting in a growing body of legislation that some (including myself) have started referring to as EU digital acquis (see e.g. here, here or here). From the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), the Union has constructed a regulatory framework designed to insert its values of fundamental rights, democracy, and the rule of law into the governance of the digital environment.
This expansion of EU digital acquis represents more than a series of sectoral interventions. It forms a weighty impact on the evolution of the EU legal system as such. The Union is no longer merely legislating for the digital economy; it is legislating for the constitutional foundations of digital society, and by doing so it also creates new institutional demands for its multilevel legal order. Here, the question that arises is: what institutional structures guarantee the effectiveness, coherence, and legitimacy across a multilevel digital Union?
This expansion of EU digital acquis represents more than a series of sectoral interventions. It forms a weighty impact on the evolution of the EU legal system as such. The Union is no longer merely legislating for the digital economy; it is legislating for the constitutional foundations of digital society, and by doing so, it also creates new institutional demands for its multilevel legal order. Here, the question that arises is: what institutional structures guarantee the effectiveness, coherence, and legitimacy across a multilevel digital Union?
This symposium forms part of a broader scholarly initiative (for our earlier activities see here, here or here). It seeks to focus on studying enforcement of EU digital regulation as the core issue for EU constitutional and administrative law, joining the emerging academic movement that treats enforcement as a central concern for the future of EU digital governance. Here, we want to acknowledge the initiative of Filipe Brito Bastos launching the NOVA Platform for European Administrative and Regulatory Law (NOVA PEARL), and his recent article calling for a research agenda on regulatory administrative law. At the same time, this initiative builds on the work of established research centres dedicated to studying enforcement in the EU multilevel regulatory system, namely the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (RENFORCE).
Simona Demkova
Simona Demková is an Assistant professor of European law at Leiden University (the Netherlands). Her research focuses on European public law, fundamental rights protection and law and technology. Previously she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg within the framework of interdisciplinary (law and computer science) project – DILLAN (Digitalisation, Law and Innovation). She completed her PhD thesis titled ‘Effective Review in the Age of Information: The Case-study of Semi-automated Decision-making based on Schengen Information System’ at the University of Luxembourg under the supervision of Prof. Herwig Hofmann. You can find her publications here: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/simona-demkova/publications#tab-3
PLMJ Chair at Católica Global School of Law.
