Dóra the tech explorer: Finding a new path for Europe’s digital future – The Parliament Magazine
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By Matt Lynes
Matt Lynes is the opinion & policy report editor at The Parliament Magazine.
21 Oct 2025
@mattjlynes
Moving from a career in law into frontline politics is not unusual. Add a technology twist, however, and the path becomes far less common. The tech world thrives on speed and innovation, while politics is often defined by bureaucracy and tradition.
Hungarian MEP Dóra Dávid has made that leap. Representing the country’s Respect and Freedom Party (commonly referred to as the Tisza Party), the main opposition to incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Dávid left behind legal roles at eBay, StubHub and Meta to run for the European Parliament in her native Hungary, winning her seat in July 2024.
The shift from global tech to European politics brings both challenges and opportunities. The biggest difference, Dávid told The Parliament, is the audience she now serves.
In her previous career, the Hungarian MEP worked with product teams to help them innovate within legal boundaries. “My ‘clients’ now are the Hungarian electorate, not software engineers. My responsibility as a policymaker is therefore broader,” she said.
Since her election to the European Parliament, Dávid has joined the Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), a body at the heart of EU tech regulation. There, she has put her industry experience to work for both Hungarian and European voters.
As Europe looks to catch up with its tech competitors, IMCO ensures the bloc’s consumers are not negatively impacted. Dávid has been able to bring skills from the tech world into policymaking, ensuring any legislation stands strong for consumers.
This article is part of The Parliament's latest policy report, "Regulating technology without stifling innovation"
“I’m used to involving and extensively interrogating experts, so my goal is to do the same in this role – involve stakeholders to understand and manage all relevant considerations… [and] come up with future-proof and workable solutions,” Dávid said.
This evidence-driven approach is vital not only for consumer protection but also for maintaining competitiveness. The trade-off, however, is often speed — something Brussels is not known for.
The slow pace has long frustrated Silicon Valley. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta, complained last year that Meta’s AI tools had to launch “everywhere except the EU” because of regulation. Apple, too, recently blamed the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for delaying new features in Europe.
The friction reflects the EU’s insistence on fair competition, risk mitigation and consumer rights, but critics argue that this approach can lead to hesitancy, with policymakers tending to err on the side of caution.
For Dávid, regulation must stay pragmatic. “Regulation should be a means to an end, not an end in itself,” she said. “Generally, there is a need to regulate, especially when technologies have the potential for creating negative externalities. Just as you’re not allowed to build a nuclear reactor in your own backyard, lawmakers need to set the guardrails for AI innovation.”
In some cases, caution has paid off. The DMA and the Digital Services Act (DSA) were designed to curb the dominance of foreign tech giants and give European businesses a fairer shot. Dávid argues they are already shaping corporate conduct.
“We’ve seen companies change their behaviour in response to EU legislation, and the DSA and DMA are recent examples,” she said.
The Commission has fined Apple and Meta €500 million and €200 million respectively under the DMA. The penalties are both still under appeal but have already prompted minor changes in the organisations’ practices.
Recent actions by tech firms underscore the need for such laws. Many tech giants, including Meta, have removed independent fact checkers. This has proven unpopular with pro-democracy politicians in countries like Dávid’s native Hungary, where much of the media is under government control.
“A pro-Orbán news outlet fabricated a document and sold it as an internal memo of our Tisza party, which the regime is now spending millions to disseminate on social media. The removal of fact checkers could therefore risk cementing autocratic tendencies,” she said.
This month, both Google and Meta also announced that they are banning political advertising, a retreat rights groups have said weakens democracy. At a time where attempts to destabilise democratic states are rife, these are worrying signs from the tech sector and underpin the need for strong legislation.
And yet, a regulation-first approach also has its disadvantages, which has informed Dávid’s approach to policy: “My goal is to help European, and especially Hungarian, companies be competitive by creating the enabling environment, instead of simply navigating it,” she said.
Beyond simplifying regulation and strengthening the single market, Dávid stresses the need for fostering risk taking. One of the proposals she favours is an EU-wide Employee Stock Option Plan to help smaller companies retain talent and compete with larger ones. “Such a plan would also bolster a culture of risk taking through company buy-in,” she adds.
Encouraging risk is not a Brussels instinct. But for Dávid, it’s a lesson from her tech past and she is confident Europe can stake its claim in the tech race.
With this approach, she is confident that Europe can start to claw its way back to prominence in the sector. “It was a Hungarian — János Neumann — who laid the foundations for modern computers. In Hungary, there are about 100 startups per year. Who knows what the next tech giant of the future will be?”
To set Europe on the path to embracing innovation and catching up with competitors, Dávid says incentives, not just restrictions, are crucial.
“Tech moves fast and there are opportunities to disrupt and contest markets. We have ideas and talent. Now we need to make sure they stay and grow their business here.”
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© Political Holdings Limited
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This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
Subscribe to The Parliament
Follow us:
By Matt Lynes
Matt Lynes is the opinion & policy report editor at The Parliament Magazine.
21 Oct 2025
@mattjlynes
Moving from a career in law into frontline politics is not unusual. Add a technology twist, however, and the path becomes far less common. The tech world thrives on speed and innovation, while politics is often defined by bureaucracy and tradition.
Hungarian MEP Dóra Dávid has made that leap. Representing the country’s Respect and Freedom Party (commonly referred to as the Tisza Party), the main opposition to incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Dávid left behind legal roles at eBay, StubHub and Meta to run for the European Parliament in her native Hungary, winning her seat in July 2024.
The shift from global tech to European politics brings both challenges and opportunities. The biggest difference, Dávid told The Parliament, is the audience she now serves.
In her previous career, the Hungarian MEP worked with product teams to help them innovate within legal boundaries. “My ‘clients’ now are the Hungarian electorate, not software engineers. My responsibility as a policymaker is therefore broader,” she said.
Since her election to the European Parliament, Dávid has joined the Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), a body at the heart of EU tech regulation. There, she has put her industry experience to work for both Hungarian and European voters.
As Europe looks to catch up with its tech competitors, IMCO ensures the bloc’s consumers are not negatively impacted. Dávid has been able to bring skills from the tech world into policymaking, ensuring any legislation stands strong for consumers.
This article is part of The Parliament's latest policy report, "Regulating technology without stifling innovation"
“I’m used to involving and extensively interrogating experts, so my goal is to do the same in this role – involve stakeholders to understand and manage all relevant considerations… [and] come up with future-proof and workable solutions,” Dávid said.
This evidence-driven approach is vital not only for consumer protection but also for maintaining competitiveness. The trade-off, however, is often speed — something Brussels is not known for.
The slow pace has long frustrated Silicon Valley. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta, complained last year that Meta’s AI tools had to launch “everywhere except the EU” because of regulation. Apple, too, recently blamed the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for delaying new features in Europe.
The friction reflects the EU’s insistence on fair competition, risk mitigation and consumer rights, but critics argue that this approach can lead to hesitancy, with policymakers tending to err on the side of caution.
For Dávid, regulation must stay pragmatic. “Regulation should be a means to an end, not an end in itself,” she said. “Generally, there is a need to regulate, especially when technologies have the potential for creating negative externalities. Just as you’re not allowed to build a nuclear reactor in your own backyard, lawmakers need to set the guardrails for AI innovation.”
In some cases, caution has paid off. The DMA and the Digital Services Act (DSA) were designed to curb the dominance of foreign tech giants and give European businesses a fairer shot. Dávid argues they are already shaping corporate conduct.
“We’ve seen companies change their behaviour in response to EU legislation, and the DSA and DMA are recent examples,” she said.
The Commission has fined Apple and Meta €500 million and €200 million respectively under the DMA. The penalties are both still under appeal but have already prompted minor changes in the organisations’ practices.
Recent actions by tech firms underscore the need for such laws. Many tech giants, including Meta, have removed independent fact checkers. This has proven unpopular with pro-democracy politicians in countries like Dávid’s native Hungary, where much of the media is under government control.
“A pro-Orbán news outlet fabricated a document and sold it as an internal memo of our Tisza party, which the regime is now spending millions to disseminate on social media. The removal of fact checkers could therefore risk cementing autocratic tendencies,” she said.
This month, both Google and Meta also announced that they are banning political advertising, a retreat rights groups have said weakens democracy. At a time where attempts to destabilise democratic states are rife, these are worrying signs from the tech sector and underpin the need for strong legislation.
And yet, a regulation-first approach also has its disadvantages, which has informed Dávid’s approach to policy: “My goal is to help European, and especially Hungarian, companies be competitive by creating the enabling environment, instead of simply navigating it,” she said.
Beyond simplifying regulation and strengthening the single market, Dávid stresses the need for fostering risk taking. One of the proposals she favours is an EU-wide Employee Stock Option Plan to help smaller companies retain talent and compete with larger ones. “Such a plan would also bolster a culture of risk taking through company buy-in,” she adds.
Encouraging risk is not a Brussels instinct. But for Dávid, it’s a lesson from her tech past and she is confident Europe can stake its claim in the tech race.
With this approach, she is confident that Europe can start to claw its way back to prominence in the sector. “It was a Hungarian — János Neumann — who laid the foundations for modern computers. In Hungary, there are about 100 startups per year. Who knows what the next tech giant of the future will be?”
To set Europe on the path to embracing innovation and catching up with competitors, Dávid says incentives, not just restrictions, are crucial.
“Tech moves fast and there are opportunities to disrupt and contest markets. We have ideas and talent. Now we need to make sure they stay and grow their business here.”
Sign up to The Parliament’s weekly newsletter
Every Friday our editorial team goes behind the headlines to offer insight and analysis on the key stories driving the EU agenda. Subscribe for free here.
Read the most recent articles written by Matt Lynes – Denmark drone scare exposes Europe’s short-term defence gap
Tags
Categories
Subscribe to The Parliament
Subscribe now
Registered in England & Wales under No. 07291783
© Political Holdings Limited
source
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
