THE PROJECT

The collision of traditional EU law principles, media regulation and protection of creative content with the emergence of new technologies are taking place in a rapidly changing globalized and data driven economy marked by platform domination and AI. The constitutional role of media and the role of copyright as a regulatory framework for freedom of expression and access to information online constitute two essential parameters of the digital constitutionalism. The creative interplay between national and EU policies and competences and the need to reconsider the role of EU as a digital regulator in the EU and worldwide (a new “Brussels effect”) pushed to the adoption of new hard law and soft law EU regulatory instruments which are the expression of delicate symbiosis of flexible (proportionate) and core standards. Specifically in the field of access and dissemination of information and of creative content, the Directives 2019/790, 2018/1808, the Digital Services Act Regulation and the European Media Freedom Act mark the entrance of the EU policy in a new regulatory era.

The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence DIGIU - Digital Platforms: Under the Scope of the New Era in Digital Services at the University of Cyprus, will focus on studying the European institutional framework concerning digital platforms.

The Centre will operate within the framework of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme, under the academic coordination of Ms. Tatiana Eleni Synodinou, Professor of the Law Department and Vice Rector for Academic Affairs of the University of Cyprus.

The Jean Monnet DIGI U Centre of Excellence will have a guiding role in research activities on the regulatory framework relating to the operation of digital platforms under the scope of digital services, fundamental rights and the regulation of the dissemination of information in online fora.

Through a holistic and comprehensive approach that is founded on the rules and principles of European and Public law, Internet law, Media law and Copyright law, the new Centre of Excellence aims to become an academic reference point for research on the regulatory framework concerning digital platforms, whilst also reaching the wider public.

Activities will include awareness and information campaigns on a European and national level, lectures, seminars and virtual workshops, podcasts and asynchronous education in collaboration with policy stakeholders as well as the publication of activities and research outcomes as an open educational resource (OER).

DIGI U aims, concentrating the most high level experts from all over Europe, to i) increase the interest and enhance the knowledge in the field of EU studies, particularly in the whole spectrum of EU Copyright, Media Law and Regulatory (constitutional/administrative) law, ii) stimulate the research, reflection and dialogue as well as cross-fertilization in the field of European integration studies, particularly in the issue of EU Copyright, Information and Media Law and Policies, iii) bring together academics from different disciplines affiliated to EU law, copyright law and media law in in the EU economy, innovation and creativity.