Verba volant, sed imperant? The Legal Challenges of EU Communication

Legal science has devoted so far very little attention to the communication made by EU institutions.

In a nutshell, its approach can be summarized by an old Latin motto, which says: ‘verba volant, scripta manent’. Spoken words fly away, only what is written remains – and, thus, deserves to be taken into consideration, being able to impose rights and obligations on individuals.

However, in the information society we are currently living in, this approach is not fully convincing.

A bare ECB press release, taken following the famous «whatever it takes» speech, has threatened the principle of primacy of EU Law in the Gauweiler case. The decision to move the European Medicine Agency’s headquarter from London to Amsterdam, that led to four cases before the EU Court of Justice, has been firstly adopted through a tweet. The so-called EU-Turkey ‘Agreement’ on the management of the Syrian refugees’ crisis, according to both EU Courts was a bare intergovernmental statement, published by means of a press release, and thus not reviewable by the EU Judiciary.

Legislation and communication have always gone hand in hand for regulating societies. However, the rise of internet and of social media has clearly projected the latter into a new dimension, whose impact on the legal sphere still has to be fully mastered by legal scholars.

Studies on soft law have made a first attempt in this regard, focusing on acts that have an ambiguous nature… but were, at least, acts, often adopted following procedures set forth by hard law. Conversely, press releases, announcements, posts on social media clearly go beyond this nature, being often unwritten or totally non-legal sources, adopted through unregulated procedures – yet, this notwithstanding, often having a huge impact on individuals.

Against this framework, the Jean Monnet Chair Verba Volant, sed Imperant? The Legal Challenges of EU Communication aims at debating whether and to what extent communication means and strategies can be seen as new sources of EU Law and how the settled principles on EU judicial protection can handle this brave new world. To this end, the inaugural Conference aims at bringing together academics and practitioners, both from national and EU level, to discuss the legal implications of EU Communication and to map its impact in various EU policy fields.

Programme

9:00

Introductory remarks

Serena Forlati | Dean of the Department of Law of the University of Ferrara

Giovanni De Cristofaro | Coordinator of the Ph.D. Programme in EU Law and National Legal Orders at the University of Ferrara

Jacopo Alberti | Professor of EU Law at the University of Ferrara and Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Chair

 * * *

 9:15

Session I

Key-note Speech

Jacques Ziller | Full Professor of EU Law, University of Venice (formerly at Paris Sorbonne, EUI, Pavia)

Communicating EU Policies and Law in 24 Different Languages: a Challenge for Artificial Intelligence

* * *

09:45 – 15:30

Session II

Roundtable debate on the making, the strategies and the legal implications of EU Communication

Chaired by Jacopo Alberti and Jacques Ziller

Speakers

Raffaella De Marte | Head of Unit (Media Services Unit) at the European Parliament

Niels Timmermans | Spokesperson at the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Telmo Baltazar | Principal Adviser for Corporate and Political Communication at the European Commission

Stefaan Van der Jeught | Press Officer at the Court of Justice of the European Union and Professor of EU Constitutional Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Paul Gordon | Head of Newsroom at the European Central Bank

Damijan Fišer | Senior Communication Officer and Deputy Spokesperson at the European Court of Auditors

Agenda

09:45

The making of EU Communication | Main issues: the governance of communication; the legislative framework of communication; the interplay with the legal sphere; institutional vs personal communication

The debates will be paused around 11:15 for a coffee break

11:30

The strategies of EU Communication | Main issues: the choice of topics, media and product; engagement assessment and targets; regulation by communication; multilingualism

 The debates will be paused around 13 for lunch

14:00

The legal implications of EU Communication | Main issues: public perception; institutional balance; accountability/judicial protection

 The debates will be paused around 15:30 for a coffee break

 

* * *

15:45

Session III

Interdisciplinary perspectives on EU Communication by the Young Researchers’ Platform

Chaired by Cristiana Fioravanti, University of Ferrara

Alessandro Cuomo | Ph.D. candidate at Maastricht University

Taking Words Seriously: Function, Risks and Opportunities of the ECB’s Communicative Practice Between Effectiveness and Transparency

 

Giulia Toraldo | Post-doc Research Fellow at the University of Naples

Benefits and drawbacks in the use of dematerialized communication as a tool for EU regulation

 

Eleonora Dallagiacoma | Ph.D. Candidate at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart Milan

Narratives behind the European environmental policy: a focus on the Nature Restoration Law

 

Francesca Tassinari | Post-doc Research Fellow Juan de la Cierva at the University of the Basque Country

The EU’s migration and asylum strategy and communication: regulatory perspectives from the executive leadership

 

Cecilia Rasetto | Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pisa

The European Union communication strategies in the agri-food sector: the Data governance and the smart labels

 

17:00

End of the Conference

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