This event is organised by the European Union Law Working Group and will feature a presentation by Carlo Colombo (Maastricht University and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at Sciences Po Paris).
The effects of the twin (digital and green) transitions on urban mobility have sparked intense political conflicts in European cities. At the core of these conflicts lies a deep disagreement in society over the law’s key role in mediating the multiple dimensions of urban mobility being challenged by the twin transitions. While the digital platforms’ deregulatory has met resistance from the established taxi industry seeking to defend the social and economic protections embedded in local arrangements, the adoption of car-reducing policies to achieve environmental goals has been hampered by the socio-economic and political barriers that support a car-centric mobility in cities. Despite claims that EU norms, by pursuing integrationist ambitions and neglecting the urban perspective of mobility due to constitutional limitations, produce top-down effects that leave these local conflicts unresolved, this presentation argues that a closer look at how urban society reacts to this initial influence and how this reaction can re-involve EU law in different terms reveals how the two regulatory levels can be re-thought as mutually co-influencing and co-evolving. It does so by developing an alternative perspective at the crossroad of comparative political economy, urban sociology and EU legal studies that understands urban regulations as shaped by social conflicts in cities and reflects on how EU law adjudication provides an additional forum for contesting and redesigning them.
This presentation will make two contributions. First, it illustrates how this process, by leveraging EU law in two areas (EU air quality law and EU internal market law) to politicise existing local arrangements in various cities, has contributed to the gradual development of EU rules that directly structure two urban powers—policing and planning—to govern mobility transitions in cities. Second, it shows that these emerging EU rules, by forcing cities to broaden the dimensions of urban mobility at stake and rethink their trade-offs, can help manage the effects of the twin transitions in cities.
About the author:
Carlo Colombo is Assistant Professor of Administrative Law at the Department of Public Law of Maastricht University and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at Sciences Po Paris. He holds a PhD from the University of Pavia and was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at Tilburg University. Carlo held visiting positions at various institutions, including the University of Bristol, the University of Edinburgh, KU Leuven, and Sciences Po Paris.
Exploring how governments can work together across and within levels to address urgent problems connected to globalisation, Carlo’s research lies at the crossroads of administrative law, public policy, and governance studies. As a Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellow, he pursues the 'GUD EU Law - Governing the Urban Dimension of EU Law' project, aiming to develop proposals to improve the integration of the urban dimension into EU policies influencing the transition to a more sustainable future.
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