At its second meeting in its new formation after the September 2025 elections, the Council also adopted two new projects.

The Essential Goods and Services project, co-led by Prof Dr Marjolaine Monot Fouletier and Prof Dr Monika Namyslowska, starts from a simple insight: what counts as ‘essential’ has changed. The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and growing climate disruptions have exposed how fragile Europe’s access to key goods and services can be, and how this fragility threatens not just social welfare, but the functioning of democratic institutions and the EU’s strategic resilience.

Yet Europe still lacks a common framework defining what is essential, why it matters, and how access should be guaranteed. Legal protections remain fragmented and sector-specific.

Today’s essentials go well beyond water, energy, sanitation, and basic healthcare. Modern societies depend just as much on education, digital connectivity, financial and payment systems, cloud and data services, logistics chains, and cybersecurity. These system-critical services keep daily life running and support democratic stability, but they fall outside traditional welfare or universal-service models.

This project aims to build a modern concept of ‘essentiality’ that captures both classic vital needs and the system-level functions that underpin contemporary life.

The ELI  Council also approved the ELI-UNICTRAL Draft Model Contractual Terms on Digital Assistants in Consumer and Business Transactions (B2C and B2B). Co-led by ELI President, Prof Dr Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Prof Dr Christian Twigg-Flesner and representatives of UNCITRAL, the project will be a follow up of the ELI Guiding Principles and Model Rules on Digital Assistants for Consumer Contracts, published in 2025. Practical demands require a second-stage instrument focused specifically on model contractual clauses that can be used by parties in the markets, and provide guidance as benchmarking for industry (actors and associations), consumer protection bodies, ADR entities, and lawmakers and regulators.

At the international level, the UNCITRAL Model Law on Automated Contracting (MLAC, 2024) demonstrates the growing global relevance of automated and (Digital Assistant) DA-mediated contracting beyond consumer settings and across commercial transactions. While MLAC provides a sound high-level legislative framework for the recognition and attribution of automated contracting, supplying operational contractual clauses is beyond its scope.

A joint ELI-UNCITRAL project therefore combines the legislative foundation of MLAC with the normative and user-centric structure of the ELI Model Rules, producing Model Contract Terms suitable for both B2C and B2B use. Such a joint effort aims to promote coherence, reduce fragmentation, and ensure that contractual practice reflects the complementary principles developed by UNCITRAL and the ELI.

More information about both projects will be available soon.

The Council also reviewed progress on several ongoing ELI projects, including the Model Rules on Succession of Digital Assets, Corporate Criminal Liability in the EU, the Digitalisation of Civil Justice Systems, and the Guiding Principles on Seizing Sanctioned Assets. ELI warmly thanks the Reporters who presented updates and engaged in discussion with the Council.