What Europe Needs to Lead the Fight for Democracy
Europe has laid down some of the world’s most ambitious digital rules, including the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Yet, as civil liberties campaigner Johnny Ryan said at a high-level Brussels conference co-organized by the Open Markets Institute and Article 19 this week, “The question of the moment is whether Europe is going to be strong and independent or whether it is going to be a vassal.”
The laws are in place. But the EU’s leverage is limited. Despite repeated calls, the bloc still can’t fully use its anti-coercion instrument – a tool designed to protect European companies and markets from economic pressure or retaliatory measures by third countries – to counter pressure from the United States. At the same time, enforcement actions are limited, including (the lack of) a major DSA fine against X.
Across panels, voices from the EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath, former European Commission Executive Vice-President for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, to former Prime Minister of Italy Mario Monti, to German MEP Alexandra Geese stressed that legislation alone isn’t enough and Europe must act boldly to protect democratic principles and confront the concentration of digital power.
In her keynote address, Margrethe Vestager framed enforcement as an act of democratic integrity. “Enforcing laws is keeping the promises you gave,” she said. Vestager warned that the greatest threat to democracy today is not technology itself but the concentration of digital power in the hands of a few dominant platforms. Competition policy, she argued, is not only an economic instrument but also a democratic safeguard, keeping markets open, preventing abuse, and protecting plurality.
Related Knowledge Center: Digital privacy and data security
If you’re online, you’re generating a constant stream of information about yourself — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes unwittingly — that is assembled and used to craft your online experience. And generate wealth for data brokers. Meanwhile, designers and managers of the digital infrastructure on which the world depends are engaged in a never-ending effort to thwart attempts, by both criminal enterprises and state actors, to exploit vulnerabilities in those systems.
Signalgate | State surveillance