In 1967, the Centre for Documentation and Research on the European Communities was established at the Faculty of Law of Modena in order to ensure maximum availability of documentation from the European Communities among interested parties. Renamed, following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, ‘Centre for Documentation and Research on the European Union’, the Centre is based in the Department of Law, which ensures its administrative and accounting management.
In 2019, the Centre was renewed, following the signing of a new Convention with the European Commission, as a European Documentation Centre (EDC), included in the EUROPE DIRECT European Network.
Head of the EDC is Dr. Claudia Covizzi. Scientific Director is Professor Marco Gestri, Professor of International and European Union Law.
Members of the Board of Directors are Professors Elio Tavilla (Director of the Department), Salvatore Aloisio, Maria Cecilia Fregni, Luigi Foffani, Marco Gestri, Alessando Guccione (Deputy Director of the Centre), Simone Vernizzi, Luca Vespignani.
The Centre's library constitutes a section of the University Law Library. The catalogue of bibliographic material is integrated in the University Catalogue. Among the first in Italy to have acquired the status of European Documentation Centre (EDC), having entered into a special agreement with the European Commission, the Centre is part of the Italian Network of EDCs and the European Network EUROPE DIRECT. This allows for the constant reception, free of charge, of publications published by the Office for Official Publications of the European Union, an inter-institutional body whose task is to publish the publications of the institutions, bodies and agencies of the European Union. Moreover, the Centre is in constant contact with the institutions of the Union, in particular with the European Commission and its Representation in Italy. The Centre constitutes a European information body with the task of: promoting and consolidating teaching and research in the field of European integration at university level; making information on the European Union and its policies accessible to the public; managing publications and other sources of information received from the Union; promoting knowledge and debate on European integration issues.
The Centre has promoted numerous conferences, meetings and seminars over the years. These have been, on the one hand, initiatives of a scientific nature, which have led to the publication of collective volumes (Il principio precauzionale nel diritto internazionale e comunitario, Giuffrè, 2006; L'autoveicolo nel nuovo contesto giuridico europeo, Giuffrè, 2012; Cibo e diritto: from the Universal Declaration to the Charter of Milan, Mucchi, 2015; Disasters, civil protection and law: new perspectives in the European Union and in criminal law, Giuffrè, 2016; Protection and valorisation of European cultural heritage: territorial reality and global legal context, forthcoming). On the other hand, the Centre has organised or collaborated in several initiatives of a popular (or third mission) nature, aimed at promoting debate on European issues among citizens. In this regard, particularly fruitful is the collaboration that has been consolidated with the EUROPE DIRECT centre and with the Office for European Policies and International Relations of the Municipality of Modena: in 2019 we organised - together with the Commission and the European Parliament - ‘dialogues’ between citizens and representatives of European institutions who answered, in a sort of question time, hot questions from the public. The idea is to reduce the distance between the EU and citizens.
Since 2008, the Centre has been one of the promoters of the Renzo Imbeni Summer School, ‘The Europe of Ideas’, organised by the Municipality of Modena, of which the 6th edition was held in 2020: https://www.comune.modena.it/summerschool
Address
Headquarters: Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza
Via San Geminiano, 3 - 41121 Modena
E-mail: cde@unimore.it
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cde.unimore.7
Library: Biblioteca Universitaria Giuridica
Via Camatta 16 - 41121 Modena
Tel. +39 059 2058720 - fax +39 059 2058733
Contacts: Prof. Marco Gestri; Dott.ssa Claudia Covizzi.