EXPRESS2 Coffee Forum: Digitisation and the EU Social Contract

EXPRESS2 Coffee Forum: Digitisation and the EU Social Contract

Organising Committee: Dr Giulia Gentile (Co-Principal Investigator, EXPRESS2 Work Package on Digitisation) and Dilanur Demir (Research Officer, EXPRESS2 Work Package on Digitisation).

Background and objectives

The rise of digitisation has transformed the relationships among individuals, corporations, and public bodies within European society. Public and private infrastructures, as well as the exercise of power in the EU's legal space, have been reconfigured due to digitisation. Consider, for instance, the ability of online platforms to influence European politics through the spread of information, the heightened vulnerability of individuals vis-à-vis automated decision-making, and, more recently, the geopolitics of digital regulation. As a result, fundamental dynamics, objectives, and actors of the EU Social Contract were renegotiated and reshaped, and novel societal and regulatory challenges have emerged for EU institutions.

The EXPRESS2 Work Package on Digitisation, led by Dr Giulia Gentile (University of Essex), explores the intersection between the EU Social Contract and digitisation. Building on the analysis of EU digital policies and institutional measures, surveys, and stakeholders’ engagement, the Digitisation Work Package will produce two reports and a set of policy recommendations to rethink the EU Social Contract for the digital age. 

The questions addressed in the Work Package are:

•        How has digitisation impacted the EU Social Contract?

•        Is the EU institutional response to the rise of digitisation fully aligned with the goals and values of the EU Social Contract?

•        How can the EU Social Contract be made more resilient through and against digitisation?

The Digitisation Work Package will organise a coffee forum on 13 March 2026. The objectives of the workshop are:

•        Presenting and discussing the preliminary findings of the Digitisation Work Package;

•        Facilitating engagement of stakeholders on issues concerning the EU Social Contract and Digitisation;

•        Receiving input and feedback from interested communities and experts.

Programme - Times are shown in GMT

09:00 am Welcome and Introduction, Giulia Gentile (Assistant Professor of Law, University of Essex)

09:10 am – 09:40 am Keynote Speech

Werner Stengg (Member of the Cabinet of the Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, European Commission)

1st Panel

09:40 am – 10:30 am The EU Social Contract and Digitisation: Theory, Disruption and the Alignment Challenge

Speakers:

Melanie Fink (Associate Professor of European Law, Leiden University)

Marco Fisicaro (Assistant Professor, University of Rome ‘Sapienza’)

2nd Panel

10:30 am – 11:20 am The Effectiveness of EU Digital Regulation and the EU Social Contract: Current and Future Perspectives

Speakers:

Giovanni De Gregorio (PLMJ Chair in Law and Technology, Católica Global School of Law and Católica Lisbon School of Law)

Zlatina Georgieva (Assistant Professor in Competition, Regulation and Governance, Utrecht University)

11:20 pm – 11:30 pm Concluding Remarks

Join us on Zoom

Register Here.

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