As Europe pushes to strengthen its digital economy and global competitiveness, policymakers and industry leaders are increasingly debating whether the continent’s growing body of digital regulation is enabling innovation or creating barriers to scale, investment and technological development.
At the CPDP Conference 2026, a session on Digital regulatory reform: from the Digital Omnibus to digital sovereignty brought together representatives from consumer groups, industry, legal practice and government to debate whether Europe’s increasingly complex digital framework is helping or hindering innovation.
Speakers included Augustin Reyna, Victoria de Posson, Jan Kostijn Dieben and Charly Helleputte, moderated by Isabelle Vereecken.
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the growing complexity of Europe’s digital regulatory landscape. Victoria de Posson argued that businesses increasingly face a “jungle” of overlapping rules and called for greater consistency and simplification across frameworks. She emphasised the importance of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and a stronger European data economy capable of supporting AI development while safeguarding rights.
At the same time, several speakers stressed that simplification must not become deregulation. Augustin Reyna warned against weakening protections in the name of competitiveness, arguing that consumer rights and innovation must coexist rather than be treated as opposing objectives.
Charly Helleputte highlighted concerns that the cumulative weight of GDPR and subsequent digital regulations has created a compliance burden that risks discouraging investment and participation in the European market. He emphasised that Europe’s challenge is not only regulatory, but also infrastructural covering issues from cloud capacity to hyperscalers and hardware.
The discussion also revealed differing interpretations of “digital sovereignty”. Jan Kostijn Dieben noted that sovereignty means different things to different stakeholders, suggesting that Europe’s objective should not necessarily be isolation from US or Chinese technology, but ensuring Europe can benefit, compete and build strategic capabilities of its own.
Across the panel, there was broad agreement that Europe now faces a delicate balancing act: supporting innovation, scaling European technology companies and strengthening competitiveness, while preserving the fundamental rights framework that remains central to the European digital model.
The debate reflected wider questions continuing to shape digital policy discussions across Europe as policymakers seek to balance simplification, competitiveness and trust in the next phase of the digital economy.
