Webinar: Revisiting the internal market: Four academic perspectives on the Letta and Draghi reports from different fields of EU law

The thought-provoking Letta and Draghi reports call for a renewed internal market. Former Commissioner Enrico Letta’s report ‘Much more than a market’ (April 2024) noted that the internal market was ‘born in a smaller world’, called for ‘a fifth freedom’ on research, innovation and education, and noted the need to strengthen the EU towards the rest of the world. Former ECB head Mario Draghi’s report ‘The Future of European Competitiveness’ (September 2024) considers that ‘the foundations on which we built are now being shaken’ and focusses on innovation, decarbonization, security and reducing dependencies. But there is much more. Both reports have caused much discussion already in politics, policy and the press.

These reports, respectively 147 and 69 pages long, are full of old and new ideas for the European Union. They also contain numerous concrete proposals to change the way in which the internal market operates. What will be the effect of these changes to how we regulate competitive markets? Will the room to give state aid within the EU increase? How will the external relations between the EU and the outside world change, given the stronger call for strategic autonomy? Where will we note changes into how consumers are protected inside and outside the EU? Those and more questions are addressed in this webinar in which the position of citizens provides the golden tread.

The aim of this online pop-up webinar is two-fold: to provide an initial understanding of the implications of the Letta and Draghi reports for the functioning of multiple fields of EU law, and to discuss the potential future positive effects and negative implications of the proposals to change the functioning of the internal market. The online audience is actively engaged and discussion is stimulated through short, yet insightful and analytical academic contributions.

Speakers

• prof. dr. Ramses Wessel – perspective from strategic autonomy and external relations law
• prof. dr. Hans Vedder – perspective from competition and state aid law
• prof. dr. Charlotte Pavillon – perspective from consumer law
• dr. Lea Diestelmeier – perspective from European energy law
• prof. dr. Willem Janssen - (chair and moderator)
  
  

Target audience

This webinar is relevant for all policy makers, legislators, academics and legal professionals that work in or with internal market law. It can also be of interest in particular to PhD students or students of EU law. This first appraisal from four perspectives of EU law can help prepare for potential changes in the law of the internal market.

Organisation

This webinar is organized by the Faculty of Law, University of Groningen. It falls within the scope of the School’s research programme Regulatory Interaction and Multilevel Governance and the cross-faculty European Integration Research Group. Any questions about the seminar can be directed via email to prof. Willem Janssen at w.a.janssen rug.nl.