After the high growth of its activities in 2020 despite the dramatic situation caused by the pandemic, CERRE has moved in 2021 to a phase of consolidation. This has been necessary in order to adapt the structure and processes of our think tank to new ways of working, to the changing needs of our growing and diversified membership and to a widening scope of issues generated by the policy and regulatory implications of the twin – digital and energy – transition. 

However, CERRE has, more than ever, continued to secure in 2021 a prime role as an influential policy shaper in the area of regulation of the network and digital value-chains.  It has done so through the recommendations of its original, often forward-looking and always independent reports and policy papers as well as through its role as a safe forum where high-level regulatory, corporate, government and civil society stakeholders can interact, between themselves as well as with senior academics, on timely topics of political and business relevance.  

In the tech, media and telecom sector, I would like to highlight in particular the work done on the regulation of online platforms where our various projects on the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, among others, have significantly informed the European Commission’s, the European Parliament’s and a number of Member States’ positions. I could equally mention, in the mobility sector, our original report on the regulation of ride-hailing. This clearly provided an input into the European Commission work on sustainable and smart mobility and in particular its notice of February 2022 on well-functioning and sustainable local passenger transport-on-demand (i.e. taxis and private-hire vehicles). In the energy area, our academic team which authored the praised CERRE report on electricity and gas coupling in a decarbonised economy managed to come out, in strict independence, with solid analyses and ground-breaking recommendations despite very diverging views on the topics from the various national regulatory authorities and corporate gas and electricity players represented in the project’s steering committee. Finally, I would like to also flag our report on Data Centres and the Grid, which is part of our workstream on Greening ICT in Europe.  This piece illustrates well CERRE’s determination to also provide, in addition to projects focusing on single sector areas, contributions which have a cross-sector scope and reflect therefore the convergence between those sectors and the new challenges this raises to modern regulation.

I would like to thank whole-heartedly all those great individuals who make the CERRE community and who have made all this possible: our members for their confidence and invaluable support, and our academic and secretariat team for their commitment and their dedication. Together, despite the difficult economic, social and political situation in Europe, we will continue to ensure that CERRE successfully contributes to robust, original and efficient regulatory frameworks and provisions, in the interest of users, consumers and citizens while simultaneously fostering innovation, sustainability and resilience.