Access Now Europe

Access Now is first and foremost concerned that the Digital Package on Simplification will in effect amount to a programme of deregulation with serious negative consequences for fundamental rights protections in the European Union.

Access Now welcomes the European Commission’s pioneering proposal for a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence. We have consistently pointed to the insufficiency of ethics guidelines and self-regulatory approaches, and have long called for regulatory intervention in the field of AI.

Access Now opposes the uptake of AI as an objective for a potential regulatory intervention. Our opinion on a legislative proposal will be based on the assessment of whether it ensures adequate safeguards for the protection and promotion of fundamental rights including societal impacts. All points outlined here are dealt with more substantially in our White Paper response, uploaded here.

Access Now welcomes the opportunity to submit comments on the proposed Digital Services Act (DSA) legislative framework. Access Now has been advocating for a human rights-based and user-centric regulation that will establish clear responsibilities for large online platforms with strong enforcement mechanisms that can hold them to account.

Access Now supports the European Commission’s effort to establish a new legislative framework that would regulate online platforms’ procedural obligations in content governance, while modernising the current legal regime in the e-Commerce Directive.

Access Now welcomes the opportunity to provide comments on the European Commission’s proposal for a Data Governance Act (DGA) to inform the upcoming legislative debate in the European Parliament and in Council. The DGA marks an objectionable shift in the European Commission’s approach to the governance of personal data, where the focus moves from empowering people to empowering the data economy.

Access Now welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to the European Commission’s public consultation on the inception impact assessment on the governance of common European data spaces. We support the goal of the Commission to make more data usable for the common good for research and innovative uses in compliance with EU data protection rules.

Access Now welcomes the opportunity to provide comments on the European Commission’s proposal for a Digital Markets Act (DMA). We share the Commission’s assessment that gatekeeper platforms’ behaviour leads to “inefficient market outcomes in terms of higher prices, lower quality, as well as less choice and innovation to the detriment of European consumers.” We support the goal set by the Commission to address…

On behalf of the undersigned civil society organisations on this statement, Access Now calls on the European Commission to consider human rights issues in its competition policies and potential regulatory actions. We believe that this small number of large online platforms not only act as economic gatekeepers, but also as 'fundamental rights' gatekeepers.

Access Now welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to the draft standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council, through the public consultation organised by the European Commission. Our detailed comments can be found attached. We remain available for any questions you may have.

Access Now thanks the European Commission for the opportunity to provide feedback on this initiative aiming to further specify procedural rules relating to the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation.

We see the gradual reinforcement of Frontex as an integral part of the problematic expansion of the EU security and surveillance industrial complex, which thrives by developing technologies of control and repression against migrant people.