Belle Beems, Assistant Professor at the Europa Institute, joined the sixth meeting of the DMA High-Level Group in Brussels. During the meeting with representatives from regulatory authorities, she shared her insights on the future of digital regulation and highlighted the importance of cooperation between authorities.
At the sixth meeting of the Digital Markets High-Level Group on 20 March 2026, experts and regulators gathered in Brussels to advance cooperation in digital regulation. The High-Level Group is established by the European Commission in 2023 and plays a key role in bringing together different authorities and bodies involved in enforcing digital regulation, competition, consumer protection, privacy and data protection laws.
In an academic panel with Professor Viktoria Robertson and Professor Orla Lynskey, Belle emphasised the need for cooperation between European and national authorities to ensure the coherent enforcement of digital regulation across the EU. In her presentation, she shared her research on the cross-border cooperation between authorities throughout the EU and identified gaps in the existing enforcement framework.
Building on her past and ongoing research, Belle discussed the need for and importance of cross-disciplinary cooperation between enforcers of different regulatory regimes. After highlighting existing mechanisms, such as the EU law principle of sincere cooperation and the High-Level Group, Belle identified the main gaps in the cooperation framework. She contended that the framework for case-by-case cooperation between authorities of different legal branches is currently underdeveloped, particularly due to the lack of a legal basis.
