FLODIR – Florence Observatory on Digital Regulation

About the Observatory

Digital technologies are significantly impacting our way of life, expanding existing possibilities and creating new opportunities. At the same time, the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is generating new uncertainties and potential risks that could negatively affect our democracy and market dynamics. The recognition of the growing economic, social, political and cultural power of digital actors has led to the adoption of a series of far-reaching regulations in the European Union: the Digital Market Act (DMA), the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Data Governance Act (DGA), the Data Act (DA), the AI Act and the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) are examples of the emerging EU digital acquis, aimed at addressing the challenges posed by the digitalisation process. Implementing and enforcing the new EU regulatory framework is posing new challenges to national regulatory authorities in EU Member States. While existing regulatory bodies may need to be expanded to include new tasks and accommodate new technical expertise, creating new regulatory bodies may also be necessary. This organisational change is likely to increase the number of multi-tasking agencies and foster forms of cooperation and coordination between different regulators, both at the national level (e.g. horizontal coordination between competition, consumer and data protection authorities, as well as electronic communications and audiovisual authorities) and at the EU level (e.g. transnational networks of regulators).

The Florence Observatory on Digital Regulation (FLODIR) aims to promote the coherent application of the emerging EU digital acquis by organising policy events and executive training programmes, as well as conducting policy-relevant research on the key challenges faced by national regulators.

FLODIR is the result of the collaboration between the Centre for a Digital Society (CDS) and the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the EUI Robert Schuman Centre, and the Department of Legal Studies of the University of Florence. The initiative is endorsed by the Autorità Garante per le Comunicazioni (AGCOM) – i.e., the Italian regulatory authority for electronic communications.

Upcoming events

Second Florence Forum of Digital Regulation – 7 November 2025

Recent activities

Executive training: New trends in digital regulation – 24-26 June 2025

Workshop: The 2024 Presidential Elections in Romania: democratic process vs. digital disinformation – 10 March 2025

First Florence Forum of Digital Regulation on The Digital Services Act: Challenges and Enforcement by National Regulators – 17 October 2024