Conference Agenda

The policies of the European Union (EU), which have specifically targeted the governance of innovation, have undergone significant transformations, thereby necessitating a critical assessment of EU’s articulation of pan-European innovation policy priorities and their intended implementation. This analysis focuses on two major recent European programs: Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) and Horizon Europe program, which was launched in 2021 and is projected to run until 2027. Key elements of the Horizon 2020’s policy focus were excellent science, industrial leadership and societal challenges. Horizon Europe has brought policy attention to climate change, thereby aiming to support the European Green Deal as well as the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, while also enhancing EU competitiveness. Through an examination of the policy discourses Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe the analysis aims to sheds light on the dynamics and complexities of the evolving pan-European innovation policy.
Furthermore, acknowledging the multi-faceted nature of European governance, the study argues about a need for a comparative analysis of the attendant discourses employed by the European Commission and the European Parliament, aiming to examine the policy perspectives taken by these two influential political bodies about both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Thereby, the research inquiry aims to sheds light on the dynamics and complexities of EU governance, providing insights into EU's decision-making processes and contributing to a deeper understanding of the evolution of EU's innovation policies and their role in shaping a pan-European innovation landscape.

Among the multiple challenges facing the European Union, achieving climate neutrality, the macro-objective at the heart of the European Green Deal (EGD), undoubtedly represents one of the most complex. Far from being exclusively a technical goal, climate neutrality advocated by the Union has a substantially political character and implies a process of transformation of the EU legal and societal order. By its long-term vision, ambitions, latitude, and regulatory depth, the EGD is likely to have a profound and lasting impact on the EU and its administrative system. Against this backdrop, the article aims to shed light on some of the legal, political, and institutional dynamics that characterise the Union’s energy and ecological transition process, the challenges and opportunities it presents for the EU and its Member States, and the complex issues it raises for the European regulatory space. In particular, after discussing the rationale behind the EU governance system for climate neutrality and the main regulatory techniques on which it is based, the role that citizens and science are called upon to play in the challenge of climate neutrality is addressed. Admittedly, the overall success and legitimacy of the EGD largely depend on its ability to integrate and balance the contribution of scientific knowledge (‘rule by the experts’) and that of civil society (‘rule by the people’) in the regulatory process, so as to give voice to the plurality of legitimate pespectives. Like any transition process, however, this one is also marked by tensions and contradictions, setbacks and steps forward, certainties and ambiguities.