Civil society launches demands for a just and flourishing digital Europe at Summit with Zuboff, MEP Benifei, DuckDuckGo, after guerrilla projection stunt in Brussels
On 23 June 2026, 13 civil society organisations – including EDRi – launched “Make It Real: Calls to Action for a Flourishing and Just Digital Europe”, a publication outlining concrete recommendations to EU lawmakers to safeguard fundamental rights, democratic accountability and fair competition in the digital economy. The launch took place at the “Fight for Us, Not for Them” Summit featuring eminent speakers like Professor Shoshana Zuboff, scholar, activist and author of ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’, Brando Benifei, Member of the European Parliament, and more. The event comes after the European Council meeting on 18-19 June, for which EDRi co-organised a visual protest to raise the alarm against Big tech lobbying.
23 June 2026 – Today, 13 civil society organisations – including EDRi – launched “Make It Real: Calls to Action for a Flourishing and Just Digital Europe.” As digital civil society’s answer to the Antwerp declaration, the manifesto sets out an actionable vision for ensuring that people’s rights and a thriving digital economy flourish together.
“A strong Europe needs a strong tech rulebook, governed democratically, and properly enforced. Our lawmakers must be accountable to people, not to Big Tech - and we are here to remind them of that. EU institutions should focus on simplifying people's access to justice and redress, not weakening core protections against data exploitation and privacy violations.”
The launch of this collective manifesto took place during the “Fight for Us, Not for Them” Summit, which presented a public-interest vision of tech policy in response to growing deregulation pressure. Attendees joined in-person and offline for an afternoon of discussion on reclaiming people-centred digital policies that uphold fundamental rights, democratic values and public interest.
The Summit provided the vision and the voices lawmakers need to hear most from – enforcers, economists, and organisations working on digital human rights, corporate accountability, and with affected communities – and not toxic big tech companies. Discussions explored the concrete human, societal and geopolitical stakes of the European Commission’s “simplification” agenda, how to ensure simplification doesn’t mean deregulation, and what a truly people-centred digital future for the EU could look like.
"Europe can regulate Big Tech’s business activities within the Single Market. I know it's possible because I have seen it. In this new era of hard power, Europe can draw on its own way of exercising meaningful and decisive authority in the public interest. But it takes courage and resolve."
The event also included a showcase of tech for the public interest, featured companies like Tournesol and Murena, and making the business case for the public interests and fair markets. Aurélien Maehl, senior policy manager at DuckDuckGo, stressed the importance of rights-protecting technologies that operate in the public interest.
“At DuckDuckGo, we've always believed that robust privacy protections are the foundation for raising the standard of trust online. As AI makes personal data more valuable and more exposed at once, that foundation only grows more important. Strong safeguards aren't a brake on AI — they're what makes it worth trusting.”
The Summit took place at a critical moment amid growing deregulatory pressures from some EU lawmakers that risk weakening hard-won digital protections, especially the Digital Omnibus. In early June, the EU released its highly-anticipated tech sovereignty package, which seems to be built to serve tech corporations rather than the people of the EU. Right before the Summit, the European Council discussed economic security, sovereignty, and the EU budget. EDRi, together with a coalition including Greenpeace International, People vs Big Tech, and WeMove Europe organised a protest to sound the alarm over Big Tech corporate influence on EU laws.
Taken together, these events set the tone for the “Fight for Us, Not for Them” Summit and intensified the concerns that EU leaders cannot be credibly addressing these issues while also weakening the very rules that protect people in the digital world.
The conversations started during this Summit are just a part of a broader joint effort to challenge the EU’s deregulatory agenda that has, over the past year, brutally culled many vital EU regulations, from laws that protect labour and social rights, to environmental safeguards and safeguards against data exploitation and surveillance. Civil society partners will continue to harness their collective power to resist the weakening of people-centred policies, reminding EU lawmakers that their mandate comes from the people and communities whose interests they must be serving.
Notes to editor:
• This event is co-hosted by the following leading civil society groups: Ada Lovelace Institute, ARTICLE 19, BEUC, CDT Europe, Check My Ads, Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties), Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Digitale Gesellschaft, European Digital Rights (EDRi), Greenpeace, People vs Big Tech, petites singularites and Stichting Data Bescherming Nederland (SDBN).
• The guerilla projection stunt on 17 June was organised by a coalition including European Digital Rights (EDRi), People vs Big Tech, Greenpeace International, WeMove Europe, the Balanced Economy Project, Rebalance Now and Lobby Control.