EDRi concerned about ‘simplification’ of GDPR by the European Commission

European Digital Rights, an international nonprofit organization aiming to advance and defend digital rights on the European continent, is worried that the European Commission is trying to weaken the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by ‘simplifying’ certain rules.

On 16 July 2025, the European Commission hosted a high-level Implementation Dialogue on the GDPR in Brussels. The goal was to collect feedback on the GDPR’s application amongst different stakeholders.

EDRi participated in the discussion and voiced its concern about the European Commission’s proposal to ‘simplify’ Article 30 (5). This article deals with records of processing activities and states that businesses and organizations with fewer than 250 employees don’t have to keep track of all categories of processing activities carried out on behalf of a data controller.

If it were up to the EU’s executive branch, the exemption for organizations with fewer than 250 employees would be extended to organizations with fewer than 750 employees. This would reduce costs for companies and make it easier to comply, the Commission claims.

According to EDRi, the proposal lacks evidence, bypasses an impact assessment, and openly contradicts the European Commission’s own 2024 evaluation, which concluded that the GDPR is effective, proportionate, and future-proof.

EDRi argues that the European Commission’s proposal is not about improving compliance or helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

“The so-called crisis of competitiveness is a manufactured one: constructed to justify weakening hard-won protections, not to address actual barriers to economic performance. There is no credible evidence that the GDPR is responsible for the EU’s economic challenges. On the contrary, what is at stake is whether data governance will remain grounded in rights, or be reshaped to extractive business models,” the advocacy group argues.

Rather than weakening rights, the focus should be on strengthening enforcement and improving the regulatory ecosystem, EDRi says.

Therefore, the digital rights group is in favor of a “constructive approach” to improving implementation. “Not through legal reform, but by providing joint guidance, templates, and coordinated enforcement methods,” EDRi notes.