On 23 June 2026, 13 civil society organisations – including EDRi and ARTICLE 19 – launched Make it Real: Calls to Action for a Flourishing and Just Digital Europe, a publication outlining concrete recommendations to EU lawmakers to safeguard fundamental rights, democratic accountability and fair competition in the digital economy.
The launch of this collective manifesto took place during the ‘Fight for Us, Not for Them’ Summit, which presented a public-interested vision of EU tech policy in response to growing deregulation pressure faced by EU digital policy. Attendees joined in-person and online for an afternoon of discussion on reclaiming people-centred digital policies that uphold fundamental rights, democratic values and public interest.
ARTICLE 19’s Dr Corinne Cath, Interim Director of Global Team Digital, said:
The deregulation agenda blindly pursued by the EU misses real fundamental questions: technology for whom? Artificial intelligence for whom? The rules being stripped away in the name of accelerating digital development – rules on rights, accountability, and transparency – are the very safeguards that allow people to understand how these systems work, let SMEs to assess technology’s potential usefulness, and provide accountability when harm occurs.
Removing these protections does not create a freer or more competitive Europe. It creates a less accountable one, where power operates in the dark and where large technology companies can further consolidate their influence.
Ella Jakubowska, head of policy at European Digital Rights (EDRi) laid out the vision behind the Make it Real publication:
A strong Europe needs a strong tech rulebook, governed democratically, and properly enforced. Our lawmakers must be accountable to people, not to Big Tech – and we are here to remind them of that. EU institutions should focus on simplifying people’s access to justice and redress, not weakening core protections against data exploitation and privacy violations.
The ‘Fight for Us, Not for Them’ Summit provided the vision and the voices lawmakers need to hear most – enforcers, economists, and organisations working on digital human rights, corporate accountability, and with affected communities – and not toxic big tech companies. Discussions explored the concrete human, societal and geopolitical stakes of the European Commission’s ‘simplification’ agenda, how to ensure simplification doesn’t mean deregulation, and what a truly people-centred digital future for the EU could look like.
Speakers stressed that framing these measures as ‘simplification; obscures their real impact: shifting power away from communities and democratic institutions and towards Big Tech.
The event also included a showcase of tech for the public interest, featured companies like Tournesol and Murena, and making the business case for the public interests and fair markets.
Aurelian Maehl, senior policy manager at DuckDuckGo, stressed the importance of rights-protecting technologies that operate in the public interest:
At DuckDuckGo, we’ve always believed that robust privacy protections are the foundation for raising the standard of trust online. As AI makes personal data more valuable and more exposed at once, that foundation only grows more important. Strong safeguards aren’t a brake on AI — they’re what makes it worth trusting.
Helena Malikova, lead of the intelligence team in foreign subsidies at the European Commission, reminded attendees that protecting EU laws is possible and pragmatic:
Europe can regulate Big Tech’s business activities within the Single Market. I know it’s possible because I have seen it. In this new era of hard power, Europe can draw on its own way of exercising meaningful and decisive authority in the public interest. But it takes courage and resolve.
The Summit took place at a critical moment amid growing deregulatory pressures from some EU lawmakers that risk weakening hard-won digital protections, especially the Digital Omnibus. In early June, the EU released its highly-anticipated tech sovereignty package, which seems to be built to serve tech corporations rather than the people of the EU. Right before the Summit, the Council of the EU met to discuss key issues including economic security, sovereignty, and the EU budget.
Taken together, these events set the tone for the Summit and intensified the concerns that EU leaders cannot be credibly addressing these issues while also weakening the very rules that protect people in the digital world.
The conversations started during this Summit are a part of a broader joint effort to challenge the EU’s deregulatory agenda that has, over the past year, brutally culled many vital EU regulations, from laws that protect labour and social rights, to environmental safeguards and safeguards against data exploitation and surveillance.
Civil society partners will continue to harness their collective power to resist the weakening of people-centred policies, reminding EU lawmakers that their mandate comes from the people and communities whose interests they must be serving.
The event was co-hosted by Ada Lovelace Institute, ARTICLE 19, BEUC, CDT Europe, Check My Ads, Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties), Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Digitale Gesellschaft, European Digital Rights (EDRi), Greenpeace, People vs Big Tech, petites singularites and Stichting Data Bescherming Nederland (SDBN).