Proposal number: 101321855, funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Programme, Jean Monnet Actions, University of Siena, starting from 23 November 2026.
The main objective of the Jean Monnet Module is to train a new generation of professionals able to operate at the intersection of the Digital Single Market and regenerative sustainability in the tourism sector, in line with the European Green Deal and the European Union’s digital transition. The project is structured around three main strands: European digital tourism law, with particular attention to instruments such as the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, AI Act, GDPR and the European regulatory framework on short-term rentals; socio-territorial sustainability and regenerative tourism, focusing on the protection of local communities and cultural heritage; and the governance of data, algorithms and artificial intelligence in tourism markets. Particular attention will also be devoted to the effective protection of travellers and consumers, enforcement mechanisms, and the role of independent authorities.
The project will run for 36 months. The programme provides for 55 hours of teaching per year. These hours will be divided among an intensive DESTLaw Spring School (25 hours), Integrated Modules within degree courses at the University of Siena (15 hours), and practice-oriented Policy Labs (15 hours). The programme will not simply repeat the same content each year, but will evolve over the three-year period in order to build progressively more advanced levels of competence: Year 1 – Foundations: Fundamentals of EU digital and sustainable tourism, including basic rules on platforms, consumer rights and online travel agencies (OTAs); Year 2 – Governance and Enforcement: Focus on the practical application of the law, short-term rental regulation, housing policies and sustainability reporting; Year 3 – Innovation, Data and Future EU Policies: Future challenges, the European tourism data space, artificial intelligence and regenerative tourism in light of the EU’s 2030 objectives.
The team is led by Arianna Alpini (Principal Investigator), Professor of Private Law at the University of Siena, specialising in European civil law, digital technologies, consumer protection and tourism law. The other members of the team are: Giuliano Scarselli: Professor of Civil Procedural Law at the University of Siena and attorney before the Italian Supreme Court, with expertise in judicial governance and reforms of the Italian justice system; Scientific Director of the Mediation Body of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence; Simone Borghesi: Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Siena and Director of FSR Climate, internationally recognised for his expertise in environmental economics, climate policy and sustainable development; Cinzia Buccianti: Associate Professor of Demography at the University of Siena, whose research focuses on depopulation dynamics, population ageing and the social impacts of tourism on local communities; Gabriele Carapezza Figlia: Professor of Private Law at LUMSA University, whose research focuses on digital platforms, artificial intelligence, data governance, algorithmic discrimination and the ecological transition; Francesca Ferretti: Adjunct Professor of Private Law and Sustainability at the University of Bologna, with specific expertise in robotics law, artificial intelligence and digital platform law, tourist-consumer protection and online dispute resolution; María del Carmen Luque Jiménez: Professor of Civil Law at the University of Málaga, specialising in real estate law, contracts, passenger protection and short-term rentals; Stefano Melacci: Associate Professor at the Department of Information Engineering and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Siena, specialising in machine learning, artificial intelligence and neural networks; Salvatore Orlando: Professor of Private Law at Sapienza University of Rome and Director of the Legal Observatory on Digital Innovation, with expertise in contract law, consumer protection and new technologies law.
The right to legal defence is a fundamental safeguard in criminal proceedings, yet significant gaps remain in its practical application, particularly for vulnerable groups. Despite EU Directives enshrining these rights, challenges persist in ensuring timely, effective, and equitable access to legal counsel, especially for individuals in pre-trial detention, minors, migrants, refugees, and persons with disabilities.
This project aims to address these gaps by conducting a comprehensive analysis of how the right to defence is implemented across the EU, focusing on the role of defence counsel and its effectiveness in ensuring fair trial guarantees. Through a comparative legal analysis, case studies, surveys, and interviews with key stakeholders, the project will assess the barriers to effective legal representation and identify specific needs, with particular attention to gender equality and non-discrimination.
The research will establish criteria for evaluating legal defence, identify critical procedural stages where legal assistance is most needed, and explore the role of defence lawyers in supporting vulnerable suspects. By focusing on both the legal framework and institutional conditions of defence counsel, this project will produce actionable insights and policy recommendations to strengthen the right to defence across Member States. Ultimately, it seeks to bridge the gap between legal rights and practice, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their background or status, can access effective legal counsel and a fair trial.
Research Units: Vilnius University (Coordinator); INOVA+ - Innovation Services SA; University of Ljubljana; University of Siena
Coordinator of the Siena Unit: Dario Guidi
Project founded in 2025 by the European Union
The project aims at disseminating knowledge and raising awareness about benefits and risks of recent EU strategies in the field of payment services, with specific regard to the Open Banking regulatory environment. The provisions recently entered into force are susceptible to leading to a real revolution in the ecosystem of financial markets. Against this background, the present project is intended to promote, through the organization of conferences and workshops devoted to the different aspects of the general topic, the involvement of public and private actors (such as policy-makers, credit institutions, providers of payment services, consumers’ organizations) capable of playing a critical role in the new Open Banking Age.
Project Coordinator: Alessandro Palmieri
Project founded in 2021 by the European Union
Not only do the EU Treaties recognise sustainable development as one of the overarching goals of the Union, but the European Commission has also constantly sought to design adequate policy frameworks for translating this objective into secondary legislation, thereby ensuring consistency between the EU’s internal policies and between these, the EU’s external action, and the policies of its Member States.
Ever since the first European Union Sustainable Development Strategy, formulated in 2001, sustainable development has therefore become an inescapable lens for the analysis of EU law. However, it appears that an integrated approach to the study of EU sectoral strategies, policies and programmes is still lacking in academic circles. More specifically, EU legal studies will require an increasing degree of interdisciplinarity and a cross-cutting assessment of the synergies and tensions between EU policies across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, to reflect their growing complexity and interdependence.
Advancing such an integrated approach to the study of EU law is especially critical in the light of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As the European Union moves towards the implementation of the Agenda, a process in which it intends to act as a frontrunner, EU legal studies need to incorporate the Goals into their core activities, using them as both a research blueprint and a tool to promote knowledge and foster debate around legal solutions for sustainable development.
Against this background, the EULawSD Jean Monnet Module offered by the Department of Law of the University of Siena from 2017 to 2020 did not only seek to provide students with notions about the emergence and evolution of the principle of sustainable development in international and EU law, but it specifically analysed EU internal and external policies through the lens of the SDGs and the wider post-2015 framework.
Project Coordinator: Riccardo Pavoni
Project founded in 2020 by the European Union
The subject of security is a central aspect of the process of European integration. After the Lisbon Treaty, security constitutes a key aspect of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (including a Common Security and Defence Policy) and of a the European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice.
In light of these dynamics, this Project intends to support activities of information and dissemination of knowledge and skills with regard to the subject of security and its role in the process of European integration, involving public and private actors who can play a role in the different areas linked to the subject of security, such as policy-makers, business representatives, staff of public administration and, in general, stakeholders in the field of European security.
The project consists of one opening event, three general conferences, three thematic workshops and one final event. The opening event is intended as a presentation of the project to the broader academic community in Siena as well as to local public and private stakeholders. The three general conferences will be dedicated to the three main areas addressed by the project: Security and Migration Flows in the European Union (Vígľaš, Slovak Republic); Security and Data Flows in the European Union (Trento, Italy); Security and Money Flows in the European Union (Roma, Italy). The three thematic workshops will be dedicated to more specific aspects and dimensions of security in the European Union: Focus on Health Data, Genetic Data and Security (Milan, Italy); Focus on Personal Data, Ethnic Data and Security (Flensburg, Germany); Focus on Integration, Asylum, Labour and Security (San Martino in Rio, Italy). The final event will consist in a conference held in Siena aimed at bringing the most engaged speakers and attendees of the previous events together with practitioners, policy-makers, business representatives and, in general, stakeholders in the field of European security.
Project Coordinator: Marco Ventura
Project founded in 2018 by the European Union
The Jean Monnet Module on European and International Environmental Law (EIEL) aims to provide students, practitioners and civil society with in-depth knowledge about the state of the art of European and international environmental law and policy, its achievements and challenges, and its interaction with emerging environmental issues and landmark intergovernmental processes. It is hosted by the Department of Law of the University of Siena (Italy) and co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission until August 2023.
Two overarching themes run through the Module:
(a) the emphasis on the most pressing and emerging issues in European and international environmental law, including the interconnected planetary crises of climate change and biodiversity loss;
(b) the particular focus on implementation and enforcement at the level of the EU and its Member States.
Project Coordinator: Riccardo Pavoni
Project founded in 2017 by the European Union