Simplification or Retrenchment? The Politics of the EU Digital Omnibus and European Data Protection

For almost a decade, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has served as the emblem of the European Union's regulatory power. Since late 2025, however, the EU has reopened core elements of its data protection framework through the "Digital Omnibus", a simplification package justified by the competitiveness agenda that followed the 2024 Draghi report. This article analyses the legislative politics of that reopening from a political science perspective. Using qualitative process tracing of official documents, institutional opinions and specialist reporting up to 26 October 2026, it examines four contested issues: the definition of personal data, the legal basis for processing in the development of artificial intelligence, the regulation of cookies under the ePrivacy Directive, and the consolidation of incident reporting. It compares the stalled data file with the rapidly adopted AI Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744), situates the reform in the history of EU data protection governance since 1995, maps the actor constellation, and examines the wider digital rulebook and the transatlantic context. The article advances three arguments. First, the reform is better understood as a recalibration than as deregulatory retrenchment, because the most far-reaching Commission proposals were narrowed in the Council, in part along lines urged by the data protection authorities. Second, the European Council and the Council have become the main arenas in which the content of "simplification" is defined, while the European Parliament has acted as a brake on the data file and as a bargainer that traded speed for safeguards on the AI file. Third, case law of the Court of Justice, notably EDPS v SRB (C-413/23 P), shapes the corridor of feasible reform by providing a judicial anchor for otherwise contested concepts. The findings contribute to debates on the regulatory state, output legitimacy and the durability of the "Brussels effect" under conditions of geoeconomic competition. Status note: this working paper reflects publicly available information as of 26 October 2026; the legislative procedure 2025/0360(COD) is ongoing.