EU Digital Omnibus: Brussels Moves to Delay High-Risk AI Rules and Loosen GDPR Data Limits

Europe has swung between pioneering privacy rules (the 1995 Data-Protection Directive and 2018 GDPR) and later easing them when competitiveness fears spike—much like its 1980s retreat from strict telecom monopolies that culminated in the 1998 liberalisation directive. Today’s Omnibus echoes that pendulum: a regulatory high-water mark in 2024 is already receding under pressure from U.S. diplomacy and domestic industry, reminiscent of the post-Sarbanes-Oxley softening in the U.S. mid-2000s. Structurally, the move signals a pivot from rights-first governance toward industrial policy aimed at stemming the brain- and capital-drain to America and China; it also centralises power in Brussels via the new AI Office, continuing a decades-long trend of EU competence creep. On a century horizon, how Europe resolves this tension will shape whether it remains a rule-setter—in the tradition of the 1985 “New Approach” to product standards—or becomes primarily a market governed by external tech giants. If the proposal passes, it may mark the moment the EU chose competitiveness over its vaunted data-protection model; if it fails, it will affirm that the Union’s identity is still anchored in fundamental rights even at economic cost.