Vestager asks the EU Parliament and Council to approve the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act as a matter of urgency, even if they are imperfect
and our 🇪🇺 democracy is at work to deliver it! https://twitter.com/... Samuel Stolton / @samuelstolton : Respect where respect is due - no one expected the EU27 to move this fast on DSA / DMA - this level of harmonisation across issues that could be geopolitically perilous is a testament to EU unity in digital policy https://twitter.com/... Messina.eth / @chrismessina : That time @karaswisher talked to Margrethe Vesteger about her big plans to take on Big Tech. Timely background listen: https://open.spotify.com/... https://twitter.com/... Dita Charanzová / @charanzova : Glad to see the #DSA & #DMA advanced in the Council. But remember, it takes 2 to tango 💃🕺The EP will get there with #DSA too, the priority is getting a good compromise first https://twitter.com/... Margrethe Vestager / @vestager : And it's a wrap! #EUCouncil Ministers have now approved approach on #DSA too! The time for safe, free and competitive #tech markets is getting closer and closer 😊 Congratulations @EU2021SI https://twitter.com/... Margrethe Vestager / @vestager : This is great! Congratulations @EU2021SI - work well done. And what a timing: To approve the council approach on the birthday of council President @PocivalsekZ! Congratulations 🇸🇮🇪🇺 https://twitter.com/... @andreas_schwab : Looking forward to the panel on Monday @vestager urges to push through rules to regulate Big Tech https://www.ft.com/... @EP_SingleMarket @EPPGroup
Context & Ripple Effects
Vestager's urgency plea lands at the endgame of a two-year legislative sprint: the Council has already advanced its approach on both the DSA and the DMA, and she is pushing Parliament to close quickly rather than reopen files in search of perfection. The speed itself is the story — commentators noted no one expected the EU27 to harmonize this fast on issues that touch surveillance advertising and platform power.
The lobbying battle behind the text is already documented: reports of last-minute Big Tech lobbying to soften crackdowns on surveillance advertising ran alongside the finalization push, and by March 2022 US firms had largely conceded, pivoting from amendment to compliance. What Vestager is asking Parliament to approve imperfectly today becomes the rulebook those probes and enforcement cycles run on.
First-order effects
- Parliament and Council face a compressed timetable to finalize both acts, with Vestager explicitly trading legislative polish for speed — any remaining Big Tech amendments now have a closing window.
Second-order effects
- US tech companies' shift from lobbying to compliance hardens once the acts are approved, setting up the formal DMA probes into Apple, Google, and Meta's pay-or-consent model that followed in 2024.
Third-order effects
- Approving an 'imperfect' rulebook fast establishes governance as market access: the EU's framework becomes the de facto operating standard platforms build against globally, and its enforcement intensity — set to renew clashes with US Big Tech through 2026 per officials — becomes the lever that matters more than the text's flaws.
The trend: The EU is replacing case-by-case antitrust with a standing regulatory rulebook for platforms, where speed of adoption and enforcement cadence outweigh textual perfection.