In an open letter, 470 civil society organisations, trade unions and public interest groups call on the European Commission and the EU Member States to stop the policy of deregulation. According to the letter published on 9 September 2025, the EU's deregulation agenda risks undermining safeguards for people and the environment, including protection against surveillance and snooping. The organisations stress that the Commission’s new “unprecedented simplification effort” really means "deregulation".

The letter lists several issues on the "simplification" agenda that run the risk of empowering the far right and anti-democratic forces, enabling corruption, increasing inequalities, slowing down the urgently needed climate action and environment protection, and depriving communities and workers of essential protections and services. The signatories warn for example against the reopening of the backbone of the EU digital rulebook – the General Data Protection Regulation; this would mean that sensitive personal data could be processed without protections. Further attacks on rights-based rules, such as those set out in the AI Act and the planned Digital Package, could undermine the protection of people's digital lives against AI-related harm and surveillance by state and corporate actors. The EU and national lawmakers are called on to promote more protection, not fewer.