Key Takeaways from the CIPL Roundtable on Simplifying Europe’s Digital Framework

This roundtable was convened around the core idea that a more coherent digital rulebook need not come at the expense of strong protections. Instead, simplification can be understood as an effort to address areas where the EU digital acquis has grown increasingly complex in practice, including at the intersection of data protection, AI, online safety, cybersecurity and data governance.

As the framework evolves, questions have emerged around overlap, sequencing, and the cumulative effect of multiple obligations applying to the same products, services or data uses.

These issues are not merely operational, but they matter for legal certainty, effective implementation, and the ability of the framework to achieve its policy objectives in a consistent and proportionate way.

From that perspective, simplification should be seen not as a call to lower standards, but as an opportunity to improve regulatory coherence. This may require:

• targeted clarification rather than wholesale legislative reopening;
• greater emphasis on risk-based and outcomes-focused implementation; and
• more integrated approaches to accountability across privacy, safety, security and innovation objectives.

The broader challenge for Europe is not whether to choose between innovation and fundamental rights protection. It is how to ensure that its digital framework can sustain both in a clear, workable and future-facing way.

Key Takeaways from the CIPL Roundtable on Simplifying Europe's Digital Framework

Download Now