Conference “United in Diversity?” Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Mutual Recognition in European Law and Governance - Part II

The second day turned to sectoral perspectives, highlighting the context-specific nature of mutual recognition:

• Health law: Tamara Hervey, Vincent Delhomme, Tollef Otterdal Heggen and Yehonatan Anahory revealed the complex interaction between mutual recognition, harmonisation, welfare states, and solidarity.

• Financial regulation: Niamh Moloney showed how increasing centralisation reduces reliance on mutual recognition while raising new constitutional questions.

• GMOs and novel foods: Annalisa Volpato illustrated how scientific uncertainty and precaution have led to centralised authorisation and limits on mutual recognition, highlighting the particular important role of science in this area. 

• Authorisation schemes: Angelica Ericsson explored risk diversity and national regulatory autonomy, showcasing mutual recognition as the base of the EU single market. 

• Market Access in Regulated Professions: Sjoerd Claessens highlighted the importance of mutual recognition in the concretization of freedom of movement and services, as a cornerstone in a horizontal system. 

• Professional qualifications and digitalisation: Lavina Kortese, understanding mutual recognition as the core of recognition of qualifications, explored the role and influence new digital tools can have, demonstrating that an upgrade from mutual to automatic recognition can only be possible with prior harmonisation. 

• Environmental protection: Luca de Lucia highlighted the role of administrative cooperation in managing transboundary risks, with mutual recognition interceding in environmental protection via transnational authorisations and conformity requirements.

• Digital governance: Rónán Riordan and Valentina Golunova questioned narratives of a shift from mutual recognition to harmonisation under the Digital Services Act and its concrete operationalisation, showcasing a high regard for procedural harmonisation but not as to the meaning of the terms employed and an eventual fall into national law, stained by different thresholds of constitutional protection. 

• Criminal Investigation and Digital Evidence: Cláudia Pina examined mutual recognition from the perspective of judicial practice in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. Her contribution focused on the role of judges in safeguarding procedural autonomy while exercising foreign judicial mandates, particularly in the context of cyber-enabled and borderless crime. Mutual recognition, she argued, has become indispensable in overcoming territorial fragmentation, yet places increasing demands on judicial trust and cooperation.

• Migration Law: Salvatore Nicolosi analysed mutual recognition in EU migration governance, exposing asymmetries between enforcement cooperation and rights protection. Focusing on return decisions, entry bans, and the Dublin system, he highlighted how mutual recognition operates unevenly, facilitating the circulation of expulsion decisions while stopping short of full recognition of protection statuses, thereby raising fundamental questions about solidarity, mutual trust, and harmonisation.

The United in Diversity conference demonstrated that mutual recognition remains indispensable to European integration, yet increasingly fragile. Its future depends on rebuilding mutual trust, clarifying conceptual foundations, and embedding democratic legitimacy and fundamental rights more firmly within its operation.

By bringing together constitutional theory, legislative analysis, judicial experience, and sectoral expertise, the conference showcased commitment to rigorous and interdisciplinary scholarship, and its role in shaping debates on the future of EU governance.