CERRE Breakfast: Navigating and Streamlining the EU Digital Acquis

Irene Roche Laguna works for the European Commission. She is Head of Unit dealing with the Coordination and Regulatory Compliance of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. She led the legal team negotiating the Digital Services Act.

Before that, she was deputy Head of Unit of the Implementation of the Telecom Regulatory Framework in Europe. She has also dealt, in a long career in the European Institutions, with issues related to E-commerce and Platforms, State Aids, postal services and the coordination of the enforcement of Single Market rules in Europe.

Before joining the European Court of Justice in 2002 and the European Commission in 2004, Irene Roche Laguna worked as an Assistant Professor of European and Constitutional Law at the University of Valencia (Spain). She continues currently her academic occupation as is also Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Sebastião Barros Vale is a Legal Officer at the Policy & Consultation Unit of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Previously he was Senior Counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum think tank, privacy specialist at Johnson & Johnson and an ICT lawyer at the Communications & Digital practice area of Vieira de Almeida e Associados (VdA).

Barros Vale has published various reports and academic papers in the field of privacy and data protection, notably in the context of online price personalisation and digital payments services. An article he co-wrote on automated decision-making case law under the GDPR was awarded the Stefano Rodotá award from the Council of Europe in June 2023. At the EDPS he has been focusing on the interplay between data protection law and the new EU Digital Rulebook, such as the DSA, the DMA, and the AI Act. He has been advocating for fostering cross-regulatory cooperation to ensure that the growing EU digital framework is applied in a consistent manner, while keeping fundamental rights at the centre.