Massimo Merola is the managing partner responsible for the Brussels Office of BonelliErede law firm and is the scientific director of the firm’s European Law group, where he oversees a broad regulatory practice specializing in EU law and competition law. In the field of competition law, he is widely recognized as one of the leading experts in State aid law. Additionally, he has been in the forefront as regards Foreign Subsidies since 2019, having published one of the first papers on the topic and participated in webinars, as well as contributed to all the public consultations initiated by the European Commission. In the broader context of EU law other than competition law, his practice focuses on foreign direct investments, customs law, regulation of network industries, internal market rules, EU funding, etc... He has a long and extensive experience as a litigator before the EU Courts. In conjunction with his active legal practice, Massimo Merola has been a professor for over twenty-five years at the College of Europe, Bruges, where he teaches a mandatory course in State aid and public undertakings, and is a Member of the Executive Committee and the Scientific Committee and former President of the Global Competition Law Centre, the research centre on Competition Law of the College of Europe. He is also a PhD candidate at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a Lecturer at Université Paris II.
As a renowned practitioner and scholar, Massimo is a regular speaker at European conferences and seminars on Competition and State aid and a prolific author of scientific publications.