Vanessa Wilcox started the lecture by outlining the difficulties of defining the so-called ‘European Empire’s’ borders and the complex nexus of agreements which expand the geographical quarters of Europe. She also made reference, inter alia, to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Schengen and Eurozone countries. The potential territorial impact of the ELI’s activities is thus very broad.

Wilcox continued her presentation by explaining the aims and structure of the ELI and emphasised the ELI’s ethos of diversity.

Thereafter, Project Officer Ala Šabanovič gave an overview on ELI Projects. Šabanovič focused on the recently published Statement on the Detention of Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants and the Rule of Law and described how the European migration crisis in 2015 spurred the ELI to seek to develop rules to ensure the effective implementation of due process standards.

Project Officer Tomasz Dudek continued with a presentation of the ELI Draft Model Rules on Online Intermediary Platforms Project and underlined the importance of this subject for the digital economy and the difficulty of reconciling online platforms with current existing regulatory frameworks at EU level. He explained the aims and recent developments of the Project, namely in the former case to analyse the need to adjust EU consumer contract law, private international law, data protection law and intellectual property law.

Tomasz Dudek briefly touched on the function of ELI Hubs and SIGs and presented the various incentives for young lawyers at the ELI such as internships, traineeships and the ELI Young Lawyers Award.