In this blog post, author Edoardo Celeste (DCU Law & Tech) explains how the EU has spent the past decade building a framework of digital constitutionalism, embedding fundamental rights into its digital governance model through landmark instruments like the GDPR, DSA, DMA, and other “actified” regulations. This trend reflects a shift toward using major digital acts as functional constitutional tools, even if they are not formally part of EU primary law. Celeste argues that digital constitutionalisation also emerges through soft law, such as the 2022 European Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles, which helps articulate and retrofit core EU values into the digital policy landscape.
Celeste warns, however, that this constitutionalising momentum is slowing. Internally, Mario Draghi’s 2024 competitiveness report criticizes the regulatory complexity of EU digital law and frames detailed regulation as a barrier to innovation—fueling concerns that “actification” has become “hectic-fication.” Externally, the geopolitical environment under President Trump’s second administration has led to the “weaponisation” of EU digital rules, with acts like the DSA used as bargaining chips in broader political negotiations. These pressures risk dampening EU ambition and undermining digital rights protections.
To counter these decelerating forces, Celeste suggests reframing “simplification” as streamlining and clarifying EU digital law rather than deregulating it, ensuring coherence while maintaining rights-based safeguards. At the same time, he argues for strengthening EU digital sovereignty—not as protectionism, but as a strategic means to preserve fundamental rights and maintain an open, rights-centered vision for Europe’s digital future.