“Simplifying” European AI Regulation: An Evidence-based Study

With the publication of the proposal for the Digital Omnibus Regulation on 19 November 2025, the European Commission has initiated a new phase of European digital policy. The aim is to simplify and better align key legal acts such as the AI Act, the Data Act, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and cybersecurity directives such as NIS2, while making their practical implementation more effective. This approach seeks to reduce bureaucracy, create legal certainty, and at the same time uphold Europe’s core values of transparency, fairness and democratic participation.

Our study “Simplifying European AI Regulation – An Evidence-based Study”, written by Prof. Dr. Philipp Hacker, Dr. Robert Kilian and Prof. Dr. Jana Costas, and supported by the German AI Association, shows how the simplification of the AI Act can succeed without putting safeguards and trust at risk.

Based on 15 semi-structured interviews and a stakeholder workshop involving companies, start-ups, associations, academia and civil society organizations from across Europe, the study analyses the main practical and structural challenges in implementing the AI Act. It also formulates concrete proposals on how simplification, coherence and legal certainty can be achieved without weakening the law’s protective intent.