Key Takeaways
- The EU is considering simplifying and streamlining its digital laws to enhance its global digital competitiveness and boost innovation.
- Efforts focus on the interrelationship of regulations, improving regulatory coordination among member states, and reducing burdens for SMEs.
- Proposals being considered include a “wish list” from EU member states for simplification of the EU's current digital rules.
The European Union (EU) and EU member states are considering reshaping the EU's digital regulatory landscape. This initiative to simplify and streamline the increasingly complex web of digital rules reflects an EU policy dilemma: the need to continue to guarantee core values including consumer protection and fair market conditions, while reducing administrative burdens, enhancing digital competitiveness, and ensuring digital innovation.
Facilitating a business-friendly and globally competitive regulatory environment is a policy priority of the current European Commission (EC), as outlined in the mission letter to Commissioner Teresa Ribera and framed in the Draghi Report on EU Competitiveness recommendations of September 2024. Various themes from the Draghi Report, including inconsistent enforcement of various regulations, are now being considered in the regulatory simplification debate.
Why Is Simplification on the Agenda?
The EU's digital regulatory framework has grown rapidly in recent years, to include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Cybersecurity Act, Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, Data Act, and the AI Act (see also our Updates on the AI Act). While these regulations aim to protect consumers, ensure fairness in the digital economy, and foster trust, they also impose significant compliance demands on companies, creating a web of overlapping regulations, and technical standards and guidance that are still being developed and/or continuing to evolve. This has sparked concerns over the EU's position in the global "tech race," notably compared to the United States and China.
Key Areas of Focus
Several issues are being considered to reduce regulatory uncertainty and facilitate compliance in a rapidly evolving global digital economy. Key themes include the following:
- Clarifying the intersection between regulations. Stakeholders have highlighted the need to clarify how regulations interact, e.g., the relationship between the AI Act, the GDPR, and sector-specific regulation like the Platform Workers Directive.
- Facilitating regulatory coordination at both EU and member state level. There is a push to harmonize implementation of digital regulations across EU member states and promote cooperation between national authorities, including potentially setting up a cross-regulatory forum to coordinate among competent authorities.
- Reducing burdens for small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs). Many proposals focus on easing record-keeping and
reporting requirements, modular compliance pathways, and
potentially targeted exemptions for smaller companies, under both
the GDPR and the AI Act.
Scope of the Debate and Key Stakeholders
The EC as well as the Polish and the Danish EU Council presidencies have made proposals and been soliciting input on potential improvements to EU digital regulation from EU member states and industry stakeholders:
- The EC has launched an initiative to review and potentially amend key regulations through a "digital omnibus" package, expected by December 2025. This initiative proposes targeted amendments to regulations including the GDPR and AI Act. The EC has also received proposals to delay the entry into force of certain chapters of the AI Act, due to concerns over codes and technical standards.In parallel, it just launched its public consultation for the first review of the Digital Markets Act.
- With the EC's simplification initiative in mind, Poland, which held the EU Council presidency during the first half of 2025, proposed delaying implementation of parts of the AI Act until the necessary technical standards and codes of practice have been prepared. Poland also asked EU member states to provide a "wish list" for a simplification of the EU's digital rules.
- Subsequently, Denmark, which succeeded Poland in the EU Council presidency, built on the EC's review of the GDPR by proposing revisions aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on SMEs.
While the EC is leading the simplification initiative, EU member states are playing a crucial role in shaping it. Certain EU member states' views are already apparent:
- As noted above, Poland is a vocal advocate for simplification. It proposed delaying enforcement of the AI Act and other laws requiring technical standards that have not yet been developed through a "stop-the-clock" mechanism, reducing the regulatory burden for SMEs, developing modular compliance pathways, expanding exemptions for SMEs, and creating shared compliance services.
- Germany and Czechia support delaying the implementation of parts of the AI Act when compliance tools are not ready, highlighting the challenges of implementing complex rules without clear guidance. This position is consistent with earlier calls from the "Innovation Club"—comprising Estonia, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania—which advocated for prioritizing implementation of existing digital laws over adopting new ones. This group also supports streamlined rules implemented through transparent and predictable regulatory processes and international standardization.
- Spain, in contrast, has argued against delaying the AI Act, taking a different view on the importance of maintaining momentum and regulatory certainty. It has recently proposed a new AI bill to harmonize Spain's legal framework with the AI Act.
What's Next?
The simplification debate is ongoing, as the EC considers input from EU member states and stakeholders. The forthcoming digital omnibus package, expected by December 2025, will be a key milestone, setting out the first concrete proposals for streamlining EU digital regulation.
The authors wish to acknowledge Ana Jurubescu's contributions to this article.
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