GSMA – Connect Europe views on the European Data Union Strategy

The GSMA and Connect Europe welcome the European Commission’s initiative to develop a comprehensive European Data Union Strategy.

As representatives of the telecom sector, we recognize the transformative potential of data in driving innovation, enhancing competitiveness, and supporting the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital services across the EU. However, we also acknowledge the complex regulatory landscape that has emerged from the proliferation of data-related legislation. While these frameworks aim to promote data sharing and reuse by fostering trust and safeguarding rights, their overlapping scopes and fragmented implementation might create legal uncertainty and operational burdens.

This is why we welcome the Data Union Strategy as an opportunity to simplify and streamline the data regulatory framework where it hinders the competitiveness and innovation potential of European companies. In this context, addressing redundancies of sector-specific rules with the horizontal framework is a priority for our sector. Simplifying the data privacy framework for telecom operators would lift the unnecessary burden that limits our sector’s innovation and bridge the regulatory asymmetry with companies that are not subject to the same rules. This would also achieve another key objective of the Strategy, which is making more data from our industry available for AI.