As the Irish representative on the Executive Committee of the Confederation of European Data Protection Organisations (CEDPO), I’m delighted to share a long-overdue update on recent CEDPO activities and developments from across our European community.
Over the last year, CEDPO has continued to play a central role in advancing dialogue, direction, and collaboration among data protection professionals. This has taken place through several key channels, including our flagship 2025 DPO Conference in Brussels, our working-group publications, and targeted practitioner surveys.
Collectively, these efforts have focused on helping the data-protection community navigate an increasingly complex European regulatory landscape, from the GDPR’s interaction with the EU’s broader digital strategy and emerging legislative proposals, to practical, sector-specific insights for Data Protection Officers.
I was honoured this year to engage with colleagues from across the EU, including France, Germany, Romania, Spain, and many other countries, helping to shape discussions on AI regulation, consumer fairness, and the evolving role of the DPO in an era of rapid and sustained digital transformation.
I plan to continue my work with CEDPO into 2026. However, before we move on from 2025, I would like to share some highlights from the past year. Below is a selection of my personal favourites from what CEDPO has been working on throughout 2025.
The Annual DPO Conference 2025
CEDPO held its flagship DPO Conference in Brussels on 13–14 October 2025, themed “Europe: On the Verge of Digital Transformation?”. The event brought together European DPOs, privacy experts, regulators, and policymakers to discuss the evolution of the GDPR, Europe’s digital strategy, data governance, and the changing role of data protection officers across industries and Europe.
The Digital Omnibus package was discussed at length by the Commissioners speaking at the event and our very own Commissioner Michael McGrath delivered a keynote address that became a highlight of the event. He combined his expert policy and regulatory perspective with his knowledge of data protection to deliver a thoughtful and insightful message to our privacy community.
His talk focused on advancing digital fairness and consumer protection, particularly highlighting the Digital Fairness Act (DFA) and the need to address gaps in existing EU law around unethical digital practices, such as dark patterns and unfair personalisation. Practices that have long been known to cause harm to consumers, and especially to vulnerable groups in our community.
A Survey on the EU Digital Proposals
More recently, from December 2025 to January 2026, CEDPO ran an Omnibus survey to gather feedback from its members and the wider community on the European Commission’s Digital Omnibus package, which is intended to streamline EU digital laws including GDPR and e-privacy.
We plan to submit our findings to the Commission at the end of this week.
Data Act Guidance for DPOs
In December 2025, CEDPO’s EU Digital Strategy Working Group published a Data Act FAQ for DPOs to help them understand how the EU Data Act interacts with GDPR obligations and influences data handling practices. This is available on the CEDPO website along with all the other working group publications.
Ongoing CEDPO News and Publications
CEDPO continues to publish updates, reports, and insights relevant to GDPR and evolving EU digital regulation on its website, including annual conference reports and working group outputs. Just visit the website to get all the latest publications and news for DPOs across Europe.
In essence and to sum it all up for you, CEDPO’s recent focus has revolved around knowledge sharing and community engagement for DPOs. We continue our mission to gather practitioner feedback on EU digital legislative changes, to produce practical guidance, and to facilitate high-level dialogue at our annual conference on the future of data protection and privacy governance in Europe.
By Maria Moloney