At the end of the European Commission 2019-2024 mandate, this post reflects on the legislative changes proposed by the European Commission to improve the sustainability of the agri-food sector. Overall, the new regulatory developments can be seen as a positive step towards sustainability in the sector, but much remains to be done as the definition of sustainability remains unclear and many areas do not appear to be on the path to sustainability, argues Clara Colonna.

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The rise of digital platforms like Google and Facebook has transformed the media landscape, allowing them to distribute press publishers’ content while often monetising it without fair compensation. To address this, the EU introduced the Digital Single Market Directive (DSM), aiming to ensure fair use and remuneration for publishers. However, Poland’s implementation of the DSM has faced significant hurdles, revealing the challenges in establishing effective secondary rights for publishers and enforcement mechanisms, argues Malgorzata Kozak.

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In March, the European Commission proposed its Defence Industrial Strategy and accompanying Regulation aimed at achieving “structural defence readiness.” Although promoted as a paradigm shift, the proposed Regulation contains little innovation compared to earlier initiatives and is unlikely to fix the industry’s problems, argues Isaak de Kroon.

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For Ruairí Harrison and Anne Koopmans, as the intrigue into the final contours of the Digital Services Act (DSA) is displaced by an anticipation as to the Act’s impact on both the user experience and platform transparency, the emphasis on social media platforms is hard to avoid. Yet as the dust similarly settles on the Joe Rogan-Neil Young controversy for Spotify, how will the DSA impact Europe’s leading streaming service? Further, is the DSA appropriately ‘future proof’ to address Spotify’s increasingly diversified business model or is there a necessity for focused regulatory action on digital streaming services?

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