EDPB stakeholder engagement: some light on the horizon?

I criticise them a lot for many things, notably their often dogmatic and not-so-pragmatic positions, but kudos to the European Data Protection Board for two things today: (i) they actually sent a reminder to participants for the “Political ads” stakeholder event of 27 March to ask if people wish to speak on particular topics or not (and listing in advance the 8 questions), and (ii) their summary of the “Pseudonymisation” stakeholder event of 12 December 2025 seems like a very objective and comprehensive summary based on the feedback I heard from participants.

Sending the questions over a month in advance of a stakeholder event is a great improvement (compared to providing them just a few days in advance in the past), and as mentioned a month ago I am delighted that they have listened to feedback (notably my own) and decided to make a distinction between active and passive participants – i.e. speakers and observers. Plus, a reminder within a week is a pretty impressive follow-up from a public body.

[Also heartening to see so many of the points I had raised ahead of the Pseudonymisation event of December appear in the summary, which shows that the responses I formulated in writing correspond to the thinking of many organisations that were present at that event.]

Next improvement on the wishlist: less dogmatism, more pragmatism in the interpretation and application of the GDPR?
[Obviously, my post couldn’t be *only* praise for the EDPB.]

Further reading:
– My take on the issue of pseudonymisation, what are “means reasonably likely to be used” for identification of a data subject, and what is “personal data”: https://lnkd.in/e2gC5xzw
– The EDPB’s summary (published today on 18 February 2026) of the Pseudonymisation stakeholder event of 12 December 2025: https://lnkd.in/eBnW-qdi

Data protection privacy