Around the world, diverse approaches to governing digital society are evolving. From Brazil and California to the UK, Australia, the US, and China - each reflects different traditions, values, and visions. In Brussels, meanwhile, landmark legislation—ranging from the General Data Protection Regulation to new rules on digital services, markets, data, and artificial intelligence—has helped set global standards. Together, these efforts illustrate how different visions can compete, overlap, and converge—shaping both national strategies and international debates.

2026 is a moment of reflection for CPDP. Marking the tenth anniversary of the GDPR, it invites stock-taking of its achievements and limitations, amid growing calls for “simplification” in the name of innovation and competitiveness. At the same time, the stakes extend far beyond legislation. They surface in questions of digital sovereignty, in trade disputes, and in the governance of infrastructures that structure everyday life. They are visible in the datafication of war as much as in the design of public services, and they affect how individuals experience rights, risks, and resilience in a digital society.

These tensions provide the backdrop for CPDP 2026. True to its tradition, the conference will not seek to eliminate disagreement but to harness competing visions as a democratic strength for facing the future. CPDP’s global approach ensures it resonates within the Brussels ecosystem without being reduced to it: its international scope makes it a platform where law, policy, technology, markets, and civil society can engage across borders. Panels will be designed to surface diverse perspectives—not as obstacles to consensus, but as vital to shared understanding and democratic resilience, to create a space where expertise and experience from different fields can engage directly, critically, and constructively.

1. Ten years of the GDPR – what has it achieved, where has it fallen short, and how should it evolve in light of enforcement challenges and the simplification agenda?
2. Children and online rights – in a digital world marked by surveillance, pervasive tracking, and regulatory fragmentation, how can children’s rights be effectively safeguarded?
3. Beyond the Brussels Effect–  how do approaches from Brazil, California, China, and the Global South challenge or complement European frameworks, and what lessons can be learned from diverse regulatory traditions?
4. The geopolitics of digital governance – how do trade disputes, strategic alliances, and global competition over standards and infrastructures shape the future of rights and digital sovereignty?
5. Financial services – what are implications for personal data protection and digital rights as these services increasingly interact with daily digital life through decentralisation, digital currencies, and embedded services?
6. Digital sovereignty – beyond politics, what legal, industrial, and infrastructural capacities are needed to secure autonomy, from supply chains to cloud infrastructure to initiatives like EuroStack?
7. Technology in war and conflict – from Starlink dependency to drones and the gamification of the battlefield, how are digitalisation, surveillance technologies, and artificial intelligence reshaping the conduct of war and global security?
8. Data infrastructures and democracy – as data infrastructures become central to governing markets and rights, how are they reshaping political processes, democratic resilience, and the boundaries of oversight?
9. Competition in the digital economy – how can frameworks within the EU’s digital rulebook work in harmony while balancing accountability, competition, and fundamental rights in the face of rapid technological and market change?
10. Coherence and accountability in Europe’s digital rulebook – how do the GDPR, DSA, DMA, Data Act, and AI Act interact, and what mechanisms can ensure enforcement and oversight while avoiding deregulation or weaker protections?
11. Data Protection Officers – how can DPOs avoid marginalisation, safeguard independence, and be empowered as strategic partners for responsible innovation?
12. Privacy and security in times of crises – how can technical measures such as encryption, anonymisation, and secure data retention be balanced with demands for lawful access?
13. Artificial intelligence beyond the hype – what do environmental costs, ethical dilemmas, and realistic business models reveal about its future?
14. Surveillance by Design – as data infrastructures regulating our lives, from identity to finance, health, education and even warfare, embed tools for tracking and profiling, how can we prevent pervasive surveillance from becoming an irreversible feature of the everyday?