Events & publications: my external activities in April - July 2026

The next update of my external activities summarises the events, podcasts, and publications from Eastern (April) to the Summer Break (July). Everything was very much dominated by the end of the AI Omnibus negotiations as well as the beginning of the Digital (Data) Omnibus discussions, which led both to a few agenda changes along the way … in the end, I did the following:

Find below my April to July overview with links and more info about my external activities in the past fourteen weeks. Trips brought me to London, Venice, Munich, Berlin, Cadenabbia, Heilbronn, Ankara, Aachen, Hamburg, and Kuala Lumpur.

🎤 09 Apr: TUM Think Tank Workshop with Markus Siewert, Rahel Roloff, Timo Seidl, Tommaso Giardini, and Johannes Fritz on Better Regulation in the Digital Field.

🎤 15 Apr: Panelist on “Morning Plenary Panel Discussion: Navigating the Global AI Regulatory Landscape” with Suzanne Brink during the Generative AI Summit in London. More info here.

🎤 17 Apr: Keynote on “Understanding AI: How AI is built and how it is regulated in Europe” at the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) conference in Riga (virtual). More info here.

🎤 17 Apr: Keynote on “Data Regulation and Innovation” an event organised by the TUM Think Tank (virtual) with Boris Paal. More info here.

🎤 17 Apr: Keynote on “Der digitale Omnibus der EU: Zwischen notwendiger Vereinfachung und blindem Aktionismus” at the 15. Speyerer Forum (virtual) with Tobias Keber. More info here.

📖 21 Apr: Published an article on “KI-Verordnung: Labore für den Fortschritt" in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung together with Rolf Schwartmann and others. More info here.

📖 22 Apr: Published as expert a commentary in the article on “From Rule-Maker to Power Player? The External Dimension of EU Digital Policy” at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation with Dr. Beatrice Gorawantschy, Meike Lenzner, Lavinia Klarhoefer. More info here.

🎤 22 Apr: Panelist on “The Omnibus Path to Data-Driven Competitiveness: an Opportunity Not To Be Missed” during the Privacy Symposium Conference 2026 with Cecilia Álvarez and Natascha Gerlach in Venice. More info here.

🎤 23 Apr: Keynote at the 13. Deutscher IT-Rechtstag (DAVIT) on “Vertragspraxis für KI-basierte und andere digitale Produkte – Die EU Digitalrechtsakte in der Vertragsgestaltung” (virtual). More info here.

🎤 29 Apr: Keynote at the 'CEPS Task Force: Next Steps for EU Law and Regulation for the Digital World' on 'EU Digital Policies & Better Regulation' with Scott J. Marcus and Artur Bogucki. More info here.

🎤 30 Apr: Panelist on “DSGVO im KI Zeitalter” at Polnisch-Deutsches Symposium – Bilateral Research Initiative on Data and the Governance of Emerging Technologies (BRIDGE) with Boris Paal in Lodz, Poland (virtual). More info here.

📖 30 Apr: Published an article on “Europe Struggles to Address AI Liability” for CEPA. More info here.

🎧 04 May: Recorded another episode “Folge 92: KI-Omnibus Update Mai 2026” with Rolf Schwartmann for the Data Agenda Podcast. More info here.

🎤 06 May: Panelist on “Competing with Giants - Europe’s own way forward” at the Rise of AI conference in Berlin (virtual) with Carla Hustedt. More info here.

📖 07 May: Quoted in IAPP’s article on “EU agrees to amend AI Act, clarifies overlap with machinery rules” written by Jedidiah Bracy. More info here.

🎤 06 May: Keynote on “Spotlight: EU AI Act – Digital Omnibus & Trilogue Discussions – Status Quo & Insights” at TECH: ignite, a conference organised by Simmons & Simmons (virtual) with Christopher Götz. More info here.

🎤 11 May: Panelist on “Substantial Modification and the AI Value Chain” at a workshop on such topic with Zach Meyer organised by CERRE.

🎤 18 May: Panelist on “Data from Europe for Europe: Sovereignty & Europe independence” at the General Assembly organised by EuroGraphics in Ostend. More info here.

🎤 19 May: Keynote on “Will AI in Europe Succeed with GDPR Unchanged?” at the European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC) 2026 in Berlin. More info here.

🎤 20 May: Panelist on “Beyond Adequacy: Fostering Trustworthy International Data Transfers” with Gabriela Mercuri at the CPDP Conference 2026. More info here.

🎤 20 May: Panelist on “Untangling the AI Act–GDPR Web: One AI System, Two Rulebooks, Two Regulators” with Lorelien Hoet at the CPDP Conference 2026. More info here.

🎤 21 May: Panelist on “Global Enforcement Playbook - Meeting the EU AI Act, UK Financial Conduct Authority, and Singapore MAS Expectations” during American Conference Institute’s (ACI) “AI & RegTech for Financial Services and Insurance Summit” in New York (virtual). More info here.

📖 22 May: Quoted in the Digitalwende-Briefing of Süddeutsche Zeitung on the AI Omnibus written by Bastian Mühling. More info here.

🎤 26 May: Speaker at Lisbon Council’s High-Level Roundtable on ‘Sovereignty in Practice: A New Path for Europe’s Digital Success’ with David Eaves and David Osimo. More info here.

🎤 27 May: Participant at “Digitalpolitik ist Machtpolitik. Technologiepolitik als Instrument der Geopolitik” a workshop in Cadenabbia, Italy with Maximilian Mayer, Nicole Lemke, and Gregor Schumacher organised by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

🎤 01 Jun: Speaker at the Workshop on “Building the AI Stack: Middle Power Governments Strategies and Approaches” with Sarah Nicole at the Global Solutions Summit 2026 in Berlin. More info here.

🎤 02 Jun: Run - together with Carla Hustedt - a bootcamp on “Unpacking the Web: When, Why and How Does EU Digital Policy Impact Business?” with Carla Hustedt during the Tech Summit 2026 in Heilbronn organised by Handelsblatt and Schwarz. More info here.

🎤 04 Jun: Keynote on EU AI Policy during the AI-Hackathons and XR‑Fachtage with Jens Stapelfeldt at University Vechta (virtual). More info here.

🎤 05 Jun: Panelist on “Global AI Governance: Forging a Common Path” with Çiğdem Akın during the AI Tomorrow Summit in Ankara, Turkey. More info here.

🎤 08 Jun: Panelist on “The EU AI Act: Innovation Killer or Trust Enabler?” During the Edge AI London 2026 conference. More info here.

🎤 09 Jun: Keynote and Panelist on “Aktuelle Entwicklungen im Daten- und Datenschutzrecht und ihre Bedeutung für digitale Innovationen, einschließlich Legal AI Tools” during the Deutscher Anwaltstag 2026 (virtual). More info here.

🎤 09 Jun: Keynote on “Reformen im Datenschutz in der EU” at an event organised by Stiftung Datenschutz with Frederik Richter in Berlin.

🎤 10 Jun: Panelist on “Democracy in the Age of AI: Living Lab experimentation for regulation, participation, and inclusion” with Christian Temath, Julia Mann, Laura Grosser, and Dhenya Schwarz at the HumTec RWTH Aachen International Conference. More info here.

🎤 10 Jun: Keynote at a webinar on “EU tech sovereignty” organised by BNP.

🎤 11 Jun: Panelist at a roundtable on “From Rule Maker to Power Player? The External Dimension of EU Digital Policy” with Etienne Soula and Raluca Csernatoni organised by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. More info here.

🎤 16 Jun: Lecture at Technical University Munich on “The EU AI Act in its political Context”.

🎤 17 Jun: Panelist on “From convenience to control: why Europe is rebuilding its tech stack” with Cristina Caffarra and Daphné Leprince-Ringuet during a webinar organised by Sifted. More info here.

🎤 26 Jun: Panelist on “EU Data Laws” during a CIOs conference with Andrea Renda, Scott J. Marcus and Artur Bogucki organised by CEPS and CIOmove. More info here.

🎤 30 Jun: Keynote on the Digital Omnibus at a webinar organised by IAPP KnowledgeNet Chapter Stuttgart with Nikolaus Kümmel.

🎤 02 Jul: Keynote on “Simplification of EU digital laws: good news for the financial sector?” During the NAIL conference 2026 with Christoph Kumpan & Georg Ringe organised by University Hamburg and Bucerius Law School. More info here.

📖 05 Jul: Quoted in “Europe’s AI sovereignty test” written by Katharine Sorensen for The Beiruter. More info here.

🎤 06 Jul: Panelist on “Ethics of Publishing: Accountability in the Age of AI and Misinformation” with Richard Mollet and Melissa Fleming during the 35th International Publishers Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. More info here.

📖 14 Jul: Interviewed by cnetz and Philip Bohn on “Der Groschen ist gefallen: Eine Grand Strategy für Europa als digitale Weltmacht”. More info here.