EU DisinfoLab: many EU states still lack watchdogs for the AI Act and DSA

Many EU member states have still not set up the national authorities needed to enforce the AI Act and the Digital Services Act, according to an analysis by EU DisinfoLab written by Dario Negretti and Joe McNamee.

Under the AI Act, each country must appoint a market surveillance authority to monitor compliance, investigate breaches, handle complaints and impose penalties. EU DisinfoLab writes that only 8 countries named one by the deadline of 2 August 2025. Under the DSA, 13 countries missed the 17 February 2024 deadline to name a Digital Services Coordinator.

The European Commission opened 13 infringement proceedings over the DSA gaps, which led some countries to comply. At the time of writing, the authors say, it had opened none over the AI Act. They name budget limits, disputes between ministries over who should take charge, and the difficulty of building independent regulators as the main causes.

Without these bodies, the authors argue, people in those countries have no national authority that can take their complaints, and the countries lose their voice in EU-level enforcement. They also criticise the Commission for its push to "simplify" the AI Act, which they say gave national governments little reason to pay for new regulators.