Is a EU data strategy balancing economic efficiency and fundamental rights possible?

European data strategy and its key legislative measures – the Data Governance Act and the Data Act – have two stated goals: first, the strategy seeks to grow the data economy, innovation and data use in the Single Market; second, a citizen-centric commitment to European values is declared. These are potentially conflicting goals, as human rights protection is often seen as a barrier to economic growth.

Reconciling internal market interests while protecting European values is key if Europe wants to achieve digital sovereignty while forging a real and trustworthy alternative model to other emerging digital societies.

On 25 May 2022 Open Future co-organized a panel at CPDP 2022 with the Institute for Information Law – IViR – of the University of Amsterdam. CPDP is an annual conference devoted to privacy and data protection.
The panel discussed the potential points of conflict between economic growth from data and fundamental rights values within the European data governance framework. The panel was moderated by Balázs Bodo (IViR), and Alek Tarkowski was among the panelist with Heleen Janssen (IViR and Computer Science & Technology, University of Cambridge), Lorelein Hoet (Microsoft) and Damian Boeselager (MEP, Volt).

CPDP published the recording of the session on YouTube: