Joint Article | Europe's digital rules must work better for Spain's economy

By Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General of DIGITALEUROPE, César Tello, Director General of Adigital, and Celestino García, Director General of AMETIC.

Europe spent the last five years writing digital rules. The next challenge is making sure they work in practice.

As Europe shifts from regulation to competitiveness, the European Commission’s Digital Omnibus on data and cybersecurity is yet another major test of its simplification agenda. The question is no longer whether Europe needs rules on data, cybersecurity and digital technologies. It is whether those rules help companies innovate, invest and grow, or whether overlapping obligations are holding them back. As many companies have experienced, simplification must lead to tangible reductions in compliance burden, not the introduction of new regulatory layers.

The stakes are high. Mario Draghi estimates that Europe needs up to €800 billion in additional annual investment to remain globally competitive. At a time of geopolitical uncertainty, rising compliance costs and intense global competition, every unnecessary administrative burden matters.

For Spain, this debate is particularly relevant.

  Also AMETIC’s  Digital Economy Barometer,  highlights that the sector is growing by 5.6%, reaching a turnover of €138.2 billion Official statistics from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) show the growing weight of digital-intensive sectors – such as information and communications – in Spain’s economic structure, with the ICT sector’s turnover increasing by 10% to reach €136.7 billion. Meanwhile, the Digital Decade framework and national indicators confirm that digitalisation is becoming a structural driver of productivity, competitiveness and growth across the economy, highlighted by Spain outperforming the EU average with a 95% fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) coverage and accelerating the adoption of advanced enterprise technologies like Artificial Intelligence. For this share to continue growing, it is essential to move towards regulatory frameworks that are simpler, more coherent and adapted to the digital reality and connect with broader strategic projects and public policy proposals .

At the same time, companies are witnessing first-hand how data has become a strategic asset for Spain’s industrial and technological sectors. From advanced manufacturing and connected products to telecommunications and digital infrastructure, companies increasingly rely on data to improve productivity, sustainability and competitiveness.

A clearer and more efficient regulatory environment will help unlock the potential of the digital ecosystem and accelerate its contribution to economic growth.

The Data Act aspired to unleash innovation by mandatory data sharing obligations. The reality is far from this aspiration: leading EU manufacturers say it would have the opposite effect by forcing them to share commercially sensitive information and trade secrets under a one-size-fits-all framework. They would lose R&I investments to competitors, be forced to re-negotiate thousands of contracts and face an increased risk of litigation. To avoid this, data holders should be able to refuse data sharing where risks to trade secrets, safety, and security become apparent, while enabling the party requesting data to challenge such refusals. B2B data sharing should be voluntary by default in line with contractual freedom, and the Commission should be empowered to recognise industry codes of conduct for sector-specific sharing where a market gap is actually identified.  Any potential transition towards mandatory standards should be supported by clear evidence, a robust impact assessment, and broad sector-wide consultation process.

Companies investing in connected products, digital services and data-driven innovation need robust legal certainty that their know-how will remain protected. A more balanced approach should encourage voluntary and sector-specific data-sharing arrangements, while safeguarding innovation and competitiveness. Europe needs a single, coherent data framework where the Data Act functions as an overarching umbrella that seamlessly integrates obligations from the Data Governance Act and the Open Data Directive, effectively eliminating regulatory duplication and legal uncertainty.

Cybersecurity is another area where Europe can simplify without lowering standards.

Today, a single cyber incident can trigger multiple reporting requirements under different EU laws, often with different formats, timelines and authorities. This creates excessive and time-consuming paperwork at the very moment companies should be focused on responding to threats.

A single European entry point for cyber incident reporting, with harmonised procedures, definition, timelines would improve efficiency for both businesses and authorities. . To be effective, it shall avoid creating additional layers of reporting, while ensuring appropriate safeguards on governance and cybersecurity risks

The Digital Omnibus is therefore more than a regulatory exercise. It is an opportunity to make Europe’s digital rulebook simpler, more coherent and more supportive of investment.

For DIGITALEUROPE, Adigital and AMETIC, the objective is the same: preserving Europe’s high standards while creating the conditions for companies, from all sizes, to innovate, compete, scale, and generate broader ecosystems .

If Europe wants to lead in the digital economy, it must ensure that its rules work together as effectively as the technologies they seek to govern. For Spain’s growing digital economy, that is not just a regulatory discussion. It is a competitiveness imperative.