The Equity and Data programme monitors, evaluates and addresses emerging technology risks to fundamental rights and the public interest in EU tech policy and legislation. We advocate for responsible approaches to innovation which put people first, uphold meaningful transparency, and enable effective accountability. The team leads the organisation’s engagement on AI governance and informs cross-programme developments on AI.
The Equity and Data team’s central mission is to ensure that emerging technologies are harnessed to serve the public interest. We believe innovation and fundamental rights are mutually reinforcing, and advocate for a responsible governance approach that prioritises individual and collective welfare, fairness and justice. Through policy research, legal analysis, and technical expertise, the Equity and Data Programme contributes to legislative and regulatory processes that shape the development and governance of algorithm-based tools, including artificial intelligence. Our work focuses on promoting the responsible use of data and technology while advancing robust, rights-respecting, and technically informed approaches to regulation.
The Equity and Data Programme works to:
Our current policy priorities include:
→ AI Act
The Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) aims to ensure a high level of protection of fundamental rights against the harmful effects of AI systems. Due to its recent nature, the law’s potential to achieve this goal has remained understudied even as efforts to reconceptualise the law in order to better align with industry interests have gathered pace, despite shortcomings being pointed out early by civil society advocates.
CDT Europe’s new report builds on these early inputs, delving into the AI Act’s offering for victims of AI harms, and finding that the law on its own cannot guarantee access to effective remedies.
Director of the Equity and Data programme, Deputy Director and Counsel to CDT Europe
