Marianna Di Stefano is a PhD Student at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Gianluca Sicchiero and Prof. Oreste Pallotta. Marianna's research primarily focuses on identifying the ‘gatekeeper’ ad a newly created subject in European Union law, aiming to outline its legal nature. The attention is focused on the legitimacy of the European Commission, as an EU institution, to assign public interest functions to private law entities and under what limitations. Their research will be supervised in the Netherlands by Prof. dr. C. Mak and Dr. C. Leone.