Ilaria Gambardella

Researcher

Ilaria Gambardella is a PhD researcher at the Centre for European Law of the Université libre de Bruxelles and at the Institute for European Law at KU Leuven (joint PhD). Her research is funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO).

Prior to that, Ilaria worked as a research and coordination assistant at the Centre for European Law of the ULB under the supervision of Prof. Chloé Brière and as a teaching assistant and research associate at the Institute for European Law in the framework of the ERC project “RESHUFFLE” led by Prof. Elise Muir.

She obtained a Master degree in Law from the University of Naples Federico II (summa cum laude). During her studies, she spent one semester at the UC Louvain and one year at the University of Nantes as an exchange student. She completed her education with an LL.M. in European Law at the Université libre de Bruxelles (magna cum laude, first class honours).

Her areas of research include EU Constitutional Law, EU Governance Through Funding and Fundamental Rights. At KU Leuven, Ilaria has been a teaching assistant for several EU courses and has coached the European Law Moot Court team from 2021 to 2024. She has also led the Young BEDER (Young Association for European Union Law) as a representative of the ULB.

Her PhD focuses on the protection of EU fundamental rights in the framework of EU governance through funding and is supervised by Prof. Chloé Brière (ULB) and Prof. Elise Muir (KU Leuven).

Short description of Ilaria’s PhD project:

The EU has always had a strong legal character and has driven policy change in the Member States mainly through the use of law and rules. The latter are identified as the “linking factor” that shapes the scope of EU law and allows to activate fundamental rights protection at the level of the EU. The EU, however, also governs through different types of instruments, such as soft law, international agreements, or financial incentives. When EU law obligations are imposed by means of processes of EU law-making that differ from the traditional way of making EU rules, it becomes more difficult for national actors and individuals to assess whether EU fundamental rights are of relevance in certain cases. This is particularly remarkable in the context of the new development of “EU governance through funding”. The use of EU funds and funding conditionality strongly influences the national legal orders and has consequences on the limits of Member States’ obligations with respect to fundamental rights. The special nature of law making in this field might “detach” national programmes and measures from the EU law source. Although EU funding programmes are adopted at the level of the EU, their implementation remains mainly in the hand of the Member States. While this remains an obstacle to be tackled, some important changes have happened in the new spending period which might “constrain” national structures to take into account the obligations flowing from the Charter. The PhD thesis explores these questions and to offer an analysis of the interplay between new funding schemes and the protection and promotion of EU fundamental rights in the Member States.

Main publications:

  • Gambardella, I., “EU governance through funding: What consequences for the scope of application of fundamental rights”, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, Vol 31, Issue 2, 2024.
  • Gambardella, I., “Finanziamenti dell’Unione europea come mezzi alternativi per orientare le politiche degli Stati membri: quale impatto sulla ripartizione delle competenze?”, Quaderni AISDUE, Vol. 3, 2024.
  • Gambardella, I., “Book Review: An Introduction to Fundamental Rights in Europe: History, Theory, Cases by Alessandra Facchi, Silvia Falcetta and Nicola Riva (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2023)” Common Market Law Review, 2024, Vol. 61, Issue 5.
  • Gambardella, I., “Case C-118/20 JY v Wiener Landesregierung: adding another stone to the case law built up by the CJEU on nationality and EU citizenship”, European Papers, 2022.
  • Gambardella, I., “L’application de la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne aux États membres : le critère de mise en œuvre du droit de l’Union comme obstacle à son effectivité”, Cahiers de Droit Européen, Vol. 1, 2021.