Publication 12 November 2024

EU Digital Policy: the Time Has Come to Connect the Dots

As the new European Commissioners prepare to take office, Renaissance Numérique is publishing its review of the last five years of activity by the European Parliament and Commission in the field of digital policy. On this occasion, the think tank urges the new EU officials to implement procedural and interpretative texts, in order to ensure an effective articulation between the major pieces of legislation adopted in recent years, rather than opening up new legislative areas. This search for coherence has become a matter of urgency: conflicts of jurisdiction and the challenges of coordination risk not only generating inefficiency but also, and above all, injustice and insecurity.

AUTHORS & CONTRIBUTORS

  • Etienne Drouard, Partner, Hogan Lovells (Paris)

  • Jessica Galissaire, Studies & Partnerships Manager, Renaissance Numérique

  • Anissa Kemiche, European Affairs Delegate, Numeum

  • Samuel Le Goff, Chairman, Renaissance Numérique

  • Jean-Luc Sauron, Senior civil servant and Professor, Université Paris Dauphine - PSL

  • Rayna Stamboliyska, President, RS Strategy

The NIS 2 Directive, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Data Governance Act, the Data Act, the Cyber Resilience Act, the AI Act… the work of the outgoing European Parliament and Commission has been marked by a succession of regulations aimed at providing a framework for digital technologies and their use. So much so that the stacking up of parallel legislation now gives rise to a legal landscape that is as complex as it is fragmented, often described as a ‘legislative mille-feuille’. This framework, lacking an overall vision, inevitably leads to a lack of legislative cohesion.

In this note, Renaissance Numérique analyses the origins of this legislative patchwork, looking at four major sectors subject to specific regulations:

  • online platforms and intermediation services,
  • the European data strategy,
  • artificial intelligence
  • and cybersecurity and cyber-resilience.

This analysis reveals the major challenges of coordinating the numerous texts recently adopted. In this context, there is a risk that regulatory and judicial disputes will precede the clarity of the norms and the predictability of their regulation. Still, the judicial power cannot be a solution to the lack of regulatory cohesion.

In this context, it is more essential than ever to finish off the incomplete work of the previous European legislature: once an obligation has been laid down, who enforces it, with what consistency, what arbitration mechanisms in the event of conflicts of jurisdiction, and how quickly? Answering these questions is a task for newly appointed Commissioners and newly elected Members of the European Parliament.

Admittedly, writing procedures is tedious and has never got anyone elected or re-elected. But it is what makes a law and, consequently, a political will, effective or ineffective. This regulatory streamlining measure, while likely to give the impression of slowing down processes, is in fact designed to ensure that European digital policy is effective across the board. For the time being, however, the new legislature rather seems to be concentrating on a new legislative project…

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