Until Europe Admits Its Regulatory Mistakes, Its Digital Reforms Will Continue to Be Superficial, Says Center for Data Innovation

LONDON— Following the release of the European Commission’s new Digital Omnibus package to simplify its digital rules, the Center for Data Innovation released the following statement from Head of Digital Policy for the UK and EU, Ayesha Bhatti:

Europe’s Digital Omnibus package makes overdue progress on data access, regulatory simplification, and user experience fixes, but it stops short of the deeper reforms Europe needs to compete globally.

The proposals for delaying implementation of some provisions of the AI Act, reforming Europe’s despised cookie banner requirements, and increasing the availability of high-quality datasets for AI are all welcome.

Unfortunately, the package of reforms treats most of Europe’s digital rules as suffering from implementation challenges rather than inherently flawed roadblocks to innovation that the Commission should remove. The same is true for the AI Omnibus provisions. Delayed enforcement and narrow exemptions simply kick the can down the road, whilst the core issues remain untouched: the EU continues to prioritise precaution over progress, and the heaviest burdens remain on large companies that can deliver European AI innovation.

Until the EU is willing to acknowledge that its regulatory model is the central problem, Europe will continue to make shallow tweaks rather than the fundamental reforms necessary for European digital innovation to prosper.

Contact: Nicole Hinojosa, [email protected]