The European Commission will publish its long-anticipated Digital Networks Act (DNA) on 16 December 2025, according to Politico. However, the DNA, recently described by European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen as the biggest digital act of 2025, is expected to be less ambitious than the complete overhaul of digital rules proposed in the 2024 European Commission whitepaper “How to Master Europe’s Digital Infrastructure Needs”.
According to leaked information from a discussion on the DNA during a 27 May Council of the EU Working Party on Telecommunications, the Commission informed Member States that the Commission will not propose as strong an overhaul of telecoms rules as originally proposed. Henna Virkkunen similarly indicated a step back by the Commission from its previous proposals to increase telecoms consolidation in an interview with Euractiv on 27 May. While previously the Commission had called for consolidation in telecoms, Virkkunen stated that “not only size matters,” as “many small companies can be very innovative and very competitive.”
This lowering in ambition may be due to the considerable opposition which the Commission’s 2024 white paper received from EU Member States, whose 2024 Council Conclusions largely rejected the Commission White Paper’s proposals to create European telecom “champions” through market consolidation. Virkkunen alluded to this in her interview, stating that she wanted the Digital Networks Act to be “an ambitious proposal, but one that gets support from both the Member States and the Parliament.” The Act is however, still expected to simplify reporting obligations for telecoms providers by as much as 50%, with Contexte suggesting key cuts to take place in rules for B2B and IoT services. A European Parliament Research Service overview of existing discussions on the DNA is available here.
Decision-making is also expected to be simplified, through the creation of a new “European body” to improve the existing architecture of the Commission, national authorities, BEREC and the RSPG for decisions on spectrum, access, authorisations and interconnections. There will also be some limited reforms to spectrum licensing.
As to next steps, a Commission consultation on the proposal will need to take place in advance of its publication, and is expected to be launched in June. Dedicated consultations with BEREC, BEUC, and the RSPG will also take place. Following the closing of these consultations, the Commission will need some time to incorporate feedback into its proposal.
While recent statements from the European Commission have not focused on emergency communications or resilience, EENA has succeeded in getting a public confirmation from Henna Virkkunen that the act will improve safety and resilience for EU citizens during an emergency. More information on Virkkunen’s ambitions for emergency communications can be found here.