European University Institute

02/06/2026

🌐 While platforms like Amazon and Zalando appear to champion consumer welfare through low prices and endless choice, their underlying business model raises a critical question: Does the reality match the rhetoric?

Through the ERC-funded DIPVAR project, Professor Özlem Bedre Defolie has been investigating how dominant digital platforms shape prices, product variety, and competition. Her research examines what happens when a platform acts as both marketplace and retailer, hosting third-party sellers while competing against them.

The project reveals a less visible mechanism of market power: by raising fees and commissions, hybrid platforms can steer consumers towards their own products, raising important questions for competition policy and the regulation of digital markets.

In the latest story, Professor Bedre Defolie discusses the findings of DIPVAR and what they mean for consumers, businesses, and policymakers.

🔗 Read the full interview: https://loom.ly/pL8QiZY

01/06/2026

☢️ In this piece, EUI Visiting Fellow Angela Liberatore explores how the Chornobyl disaster has shaped policy responses, emergency preparedness, and debates about nuclear safety during the 40 years since the accident.

Reflecting on contemporary challenges, she points to the occupation and militarisation of nuclear facilities in Ukraine as evidence that the lessons of past nuclear disasters remain insufficiently learned. In her view, the use of nuclear infrastructure as a tool of war risks normalising dangerous practices with potentially severe consequences for people, societies, and the environment.

🗣️ The third consecutive failure of a five-year review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in May 2026 and the attacks on Iranian nuclear plants are concerning signals of reduced capacity and willingness to responsibly manage nuclear power.

Read the full article 👉 https://loom.ly/nnObCm0

29/05/2026

🗣️ To be more partner and less rival: What does this mean in practice, and how can it be achieved amid divergences and mounting trade tensions?

🔍 In the latest piece, Kunhao Yang, a PhD researcher at the EUI Department of Law, explores the evolving dynamics of EU-China relations and uses a proposal for EU-China collaboration on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) reform as an illustrative case of how engagement can be pursued in practice.

🤝 He suggests that, although a return to a 'golden age' of EU-China relations might be challenging, EU–China cooperation is still possible, but only if it becomes more pragmatic, issue-specific, and centred on areas of concrete policy convergence rather than broader political alignment.

Read the full commentary 🔗 https://loom.ly/7n-cAOE

28/05/2026

💻 Europe wants to build a thriving data economy. But can innovation and data protection truly coexist?

In the final episode of this year’s series, Lola Montero Santos at the EUI Department of Law explores one of the central tensions shaping the EU’s digital future: how to protect personal data while still allowing businesses to use data in ways that support innovation and economic growth.

Through the study of EU law, the GDPR, and the case law of the Court of Justice, Lola argues that the challenge lies not only in the regulation itself, but also in how it is interpreted and applied.

By proposing a more balanced legal framework, her work asks how Europe can safeguard fundamental rights while building the competitive data economy it envisions.

🎓 Thank you for following the research journeys of our EUI community throughout the year!

28/05/2026

Yesterday at our Villa Salviati, the Department of Law hosted a full-day conference on hosted a full-day conference exploring the growing role of economic statecraft - the use of economic tools to advance foreign policy and security objectives.

Across a series of panels and presentations, leading scholars examined the political and economic dimensions of this rapidly evolving field, as well as its far-reaching implications for international law and global governance.

🎤 In his keynote speech, Professor Gregory Shaffer, from Georgetown Law School, explored the making and consequences of geoeconomics. He expressed that geoeconomics is becoming the dominant logic for economic relations, and that this is intertwined with the rise of artificial intelligence.

💬 Both shape how the world is perceived and organised, he argued, warning of AI's ability to "colonise our consciousness" and how, without regulation, the acceleration of economic statecraft by AI could create a "Hobbesian geo-economic framework" that could put democracy at risk.

👏 A key milestone of the event was the announcement of the new Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of International Law: Sonia Rolland from Northeastern University, Jean Ho from NUS Singapore, Fabio Morosini from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul School of Law, and Andrew Lang from the University of Edinburgh.

A big thank you to all who joined us!

27/05/2026

In 1976, 70 researchers walked through the doors of a new institution: the European University Institute ✨

The idea behind it? That a united Europe depended not only on treaties and trade, but also on culture, education, and a shared sense of identity.

🎞️ Made for our 50th anniversary celebrations, this video looks back at the Institute’s origins through the people who shaped it, and those still shaping it, reflecting on where we came from and why it matters more than ever.

🔗 If you missed the celebrations or you want to revisit some of the most memorable moments, check our full 50th anniversary playlist on YouTube.

27/05/2026

⚡ The conflict in Iran has been widely discussed in international news coverage and public debate, while its dynamics and possible paths toward de-escalation remain complex.

📝 In this interview, Max Weber Programme Fellow Mohammad Eslami discusses the nature of the conflict, the actors involved, the measures taken in response, and possible avenues toward resolution.

🌍 Drawing on his research, he examines the issue from political, regional, and international perspectives, outlining some of the factors shaping the conflict today.

Read the full interview here 👉 https://loom.ly/teRJz8o

In this EUIResearch interview, Max Weber Fellow Mohammad Eslami discusses how regional actors, nonstate groups, and global powers shape conflict in Iran and t

26/05/2026

The themes of the Institute’s 50th anniversary celebrations resonated far beyond our campus, generating media coverage across international, national, and local press. 🗞️

From reflections on contemporary Europe and the future of academia, to the involvement of local communities and stakeholders, these conversations found space in both print and online media, reaching a wide range of readers.

We are grateful to the journalists who helped tell our Institute’s story: its distinctive character, its strengths and challenges, but above all the values that have guided it and will continue to shape its future in the years to come.

📖 Articles featured:

• Die Deutungshoheit über Europa zurückerobern – 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒇𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑨𝒍𝒍𝒈𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒁𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒈
• Het vijftigjarige European University Institute wil geen ‘fabriek voor eurocraten’ zijn – 𝑵𝑹𝑪
• Ricerca e politica nello IUE. Per i 50 anni dell’Istituto Metsola incontra gli studenti – 𝑳𝒂 𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒛𝒆
• L'EUI de Florence, le laboratoire d’idées de l’Europe qui cherche à se réinventer – 𝑳'𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔

🔗 To read more press coverage, check out: https://loom.ly/ONh_Xaw
📩 For more information and press inquiries: [email protected]

26/05/2026

Can cheaper flights end up costing taxpayers more? ✈️

In the latest video, PhD researcher Miguel Blanco Cocho explores how transport subsidies can unintentionally raise airline prices, and how better policy design could reduce public spending while improving access for citizens.

His research at the EUI Economics Department suggests that fixed subsidies may work better than percentage-based discounts, helping consumers save while limiting unintended price increases.

🎥 Watch the full video: https://loom.ly/ytKHt7I

25/05/2026

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝗨 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱? This , we are sharing a story about EU law, a 1,443-kilometre pipeline, and what gets lost between the document and the ground. Luca Tenreira, a PhD researcher at the EUI Department of Law, followed the East African Crude Oil Pipeline through Uganda and Tanzania to understand how EU corporate responsibility law operates in practice.

🔗 Read the whole story here: https://loom.ly/xEGUDIA