EU Institutions Align on Regulatory Interplay in Digital Law Reform
EU institutions are gradually aligning on how to simplify the EU digital rulebook while preserving effective regulatory coordination. At the European Data Protection Board workshop on regulatory interplay on 17 March, senior EU policymakers emphasized that simplification through the proposed Digital Omnibus packages must not weaken cooperation between regulatory frameworks such as the GDPR, DSA, and DMA. Instead, simplification should reduce duplication while ensuring consistent enforcement across the EU.
European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen highlighted that regulatory overlap is unavoidable in a complex digital environment and must be managed through clear rules and coordinated enforcement. She pointed to ongoing efforts to address fragmented reporting obligations, including a single EU data breach reporting portal covering the GDPR, NIS2, DORA, the Critical Entities Resilience Directive, and the upcoming Cyber Resilience Act. National-level cooperation between data protection authorities and digital services coordinators was identified as a practical necessity.
European Parliament LIBE Chair Javier Zarzalejos stressed that regulatory interconnections in areas such as targeted advertising, platform accountability, and online harms are now structural rather than optional. He framed the GDPR and DSA as complementary instruments: the GDPR governs lawful data use grounded in fundamental rights, while the DSA regulates how platforms manage systemic risks and user safety. Together, they form a rights-based model for governing the EU data-driven economy.
Discussions on the Digital Omnibus on Artificial Intelligence are progressing more smoothly than those concerning the broader digital acquis, where debate continues, particularly on proposed changes to the GDPR definition of personal data. Virkkunen clarified that the Commission’s intent is not to reduce protections but to provide practical compliance relief for businesses. As trilogue negotiations approach, the challenge will be balancing simplification with the legal certainty and trust that underpin EU digital regulation.
