Overview
- Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen is slated to explain the plan in Berlin and formally present it in Brussels on Wednesday.
- The draft would ease consent requirements by letting companies rely on 'legitimate interest' for cookies and permit personal data use for AI training on that basis.
- Officials have discussed a one-year transitional pause on enforcing some AI Act prohibitions, though no final decision has been taken.
- The package targets revisions to GDPR alongside the Data Act, cybersecurity rules and other digital frameworks, citing regulatory complexity flagged in Mario Draghi’s competitiveness review.
- Civil-society groups and several MEPs warn of a sweeping rollback of digital rights, while the Commission rejects that charge and any changes would still require approval by the European Parliament and EU member states.