Mrs Gaia TaffoniUniversity of Milan, Visiting PhD Fellow 2017/2018ProfileResearchPublicationsProfileGaia Taffoni holds a BA in International Studies and a MA in International Relations, European Institutions curriculum, from the University of Bologna. She is currently a PhD candidate in Political Studies at University of Milan, NASP Graduate School. Her dissertation aims at investigating the EU’s democracy and rule of law promotion attempts toward the MENA region. In particular, her work focuses on the Judicial Governance of North African countries and the EU and CoE promotion attempts through the participation in transgovernmental networks of judicial cooperation. The question is to understand whether and how the EU’s pressure is actually impacting on the Judicial guarantees of independence of transitional MENA countries. She worked as a research trainee at ISPI (Italian Institute for International Political Studies) in Milan where she edited the 2017 edition of ISPI/Treccani Geopolitical Atlas and contributes to the research activities of the Institute with publications on Morocco political developments and EU’s Foreign Policy. She recently contributed to the EU funded platform “Youth for Europe, the Parliament and Us” with a lecture on the Normative Power of the European Union.ResearchResearch Interests: EU Foreign Policy EU Judicial Cooperation EU-MENA relations PublicationsTaffoni, Gaia (2016) A New Momentum for the European Union Global Strategy?, Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale