We received this written response to our petition by the European Commission.

We would like to sincerely thank the Commission for its detailed and encouraging response to Petition No. 0710/2025 concerning the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the AI Act.

It is a well written, diplomatic but positive, response to which we were invited to provide a counter-response.

This is our counter-response, accounting for the current political pressure the European Commission and European Parliament are facing, while pointing out the areas where our concerns persist.

Short History

After initiating our open letter in February 2025 it was our great pleasure and honour that Digital Humanism was invited to present the Petition No 0710/2025 on defending the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and regulating Artificial Intelligence in the EU based on our letter below on the urgent need to regulate digital technologies.

Erich Prem, President of the Association of Digital Humanism and Co-ordinator of the European Digital Humanism Initiative EUDHIT presented the petition to the Petitions Committee (PETI) of the European Parliament on July 16 2025.

After the presentation to the PETI Committee, the DigHum petition was unanimously supported by all political parties and it was decided that our petition is also forwarded to the International Trade (INTA) and Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committees.

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Open Letter

We, the signatories of this letter, believe that the European Union (EU) must stand up to the overt threats to its digital regulatory framework which has been and continues to be constructed in order to safeguard its humanistic and democratic values.

These threats emanate from an unprecedented confluence of immense political and economic power and the EU regulations may well constitute one of the last lines of defence against these threats worldwide.

The EU regulatory tools comprising, most recently, the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) do not constitute censorship or attacks on any particular company or nation as powerful disinformation purveyors claim. They have been designed to protect information and election integrity, protect from monopolistic power abuses and show that there are ways to harness the benefits of technology for all while mitigating its potential harms.

We, the signatories of this letter, therefore, propose that:

The provisions of the DSA and DMA should be fully enforced and that the completion of the AI Act towards its full implementation in 2026 should proceed forcefully. This will help maintain trust that the EU will effectively regulate emerging technologies when and as needed in the future.

The EU should continue working multilaterally to set common standards and regulatory policies in AI and digital technologies in general, with other national and international organizations as broadly as possible. The recent adoption of the Brazil AI Act provides a first glimpse of an “adapt and adopt” Brussels Effect globally.

The currently under discussion proposals for greater EU integration and investment (Letta and Draghi reports) should be adopted and substantially implemented as a prerequisite to the EU’s digital sovereignty. This becomes particularly crucial in the context of current developments in AI technologies.

We, the signatories of this letter, pledge to work with like minded concerned citizens and national, as well as international organizations to support the EU in taking the strong and united stand that we propose. This pledge extends to all institutions and countries striving to defend and preserve shared humanistic and democratic values, and to ensure that digital technology advances are put to the best possible use for the well- being of humanity.

Download

The Open Letter on the Urgent Need to Regulate Digital Technologies is available for download in PDF format: An Open Letter on the Urgent Need to Regulate Digital Technologies