Why break the most successful legal framework in the world?
Above all, don’t give in. Following Connect 2025, Thierry Breton analyzes the Digital Omnibus, the European Commission’s controversial legislative proposal.
Along with others, former European Commissioner Thierry Breton calls for firm resistance to attempts to “unravel” major European digital laws. In a post, he stated: “In the face of pressure—particularly from outside the EU—we must not give in.” A week earlier, at Connect 2025, the event co-organized by Win and Computerland, Thierry Breton reiterated the vital importance of our digital sovereignty.
“Social networks, e-commerce, AI assistants… Every day, we spend an average of four to five hours in this information space via our smartphones and other screens. It is essential to organize, structure, and regulate it.” Europe has already set to work on this. Between 2022 and 2024, our digital laws were adopted by an overwhelming majority of MEPs and unanimously by the Member States.
The DSA (social networks), the DMA (digital markets), the Data Act (data), and the AI Act (artificial intelligence) form the common foundation for protecting our children, our fellow citizens, our businesses, and our democracies against all kinds of abuses in the information space. “These four major laws reflect our fundamental values and the principles of our rule of law. To date, this legal framework is the most advanced in the world. Europe can be proud of this! “
Omnibus… at the risk of sacrificing our fundamental rights
Today, the European Commission is proposing a new digital package, the Digital Omnibus, to ”simplify the rules on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and data management.” The proposal is not going down well. This project is not a technical adjustment but an ideological rewrite, according to many observers.
By reducing the scope of the GDPR, among other things, the European Commission risks sacrificing the primacy of fundamental rights in favor of economic interests and the race for AI. Restricting the protection of sensitive data to only “directly disclosed” information amounts to ignoring the power of algorithmic inferences: it is a gift to automatic profiling.
Let’s not be afraid to displease!
At Connect 2025, Thierry Breton warned: “Our huge digital market is open to all… but those who want to take advantage of it must respect our conditions. Let’s not be afraid to upset people: no respect for the law, no access to the market!” In fact, this is the rule for our major partners. Do the United States or China refuse to apply their own laws to please us? “Let’s apply ours swiftly,” urges the former commissioner. This must be the first expression of European digital sovereignty. “
The United States, China, Russia, Europe—the new state-run digital empires are distinguished by their own visions and divergent strategies for the information space that reflect their values, their priorities in terms of sovereignty, and their relationship to the market and the state, explains Thierry Breton.
”Faced with unbridled liberalism and authoritarian dirigisme, Europe has chosen its own path. It has relied on the strength of its large internal market of 450 million citizens. This requires the political courage to use it without fail in power struggles. The legal arsenal of our information space is designed to ensure its homogeneity, the protection of users, the transparency of the players involved, and the preservation of the foundations of our democracies. “
Let’s not be useful idiots!
Is it any wonder, then, that some are striving to weaken it, to methodically dismantle the four pillars of our digital space? Let’s not be intimidated! Let’s not dismantle them—through so-called “omnibus” laws or other measures—just a few months after they come into force on the pretext that they are too complex or even “anti-innovation.”
The transatlantic origin of these attacks is clear to everyone. “Let’s not be ‘useful idiots’!” Preserving the integrity of our digital legal pillars at all costs, including at the geopolitical level, is therefore the second expression of our digital sovereignty.
Sovereignty is built, it cannot be bought, Thierry Breton told the 500 participants at Connect 2025. And he repeated his message today. “Europe, which does not have any global digital champions, will only assert credible and lasting sovereignty by combining ambitious regulation, massive investment, sovereign innovation, coordinated action, and the promotion of talent. “
The eternal question of financing
Europe must invest in research, critical infrastructure, training, and more. The goal is to foster the emergence of champions capable of competing with Big Tech, which requires financing start-ups, consolidating innovative SMEs, and creating native European platforms.
To this end, a single capital market is an absolute priority in order to have a financial environment comparable to that of the US, insists Thierry Breton. This is also so that our projects do not remain prototypes or showcases, but become global standards. What’s more, autonomy requires that we no longer depend on non-European jurisdictions for our data (Patriot Act, Cloud Act, etc.), that we locate and certify our critical infrastructure, and that we promote the use of open source.
“Resisting external pressures, developing and asserting the impermeability of our sovereign infrastructure: this must be the third expression of our digital sovereignty.”
