Regtech and ESG: Smart Compliance for a Responsible and Competitive Digital Europe

Europe’s digital transformation agenda is increasingly accompanied by new regulatory frameworks, each introducing distinct compliance requirements and operational challenges. As businesses digitize and scale, traditional compliance methods are proving too slow, costly, and fragmented. To sustain competitiveness and innovation, compliance processes themselves must evolve — becoming integrated, data-driven, automated, and adaptable.

This session explores how to enable more effective and efficient compliance in practice. We will examine the technical challenges linked to key regulatory obligations, such as ESG reporting under the CSRD and the forthcoming CSDDD; the role of data spaces as institutional infrastructures for enabling automated compliance and supporting regulatory oversight; and the growing relevance of Compliance-by-Design as both a technological and governance paradigm. The discussion will highlight pathways for embedding compliance into digital systems from the outset, reducing administrative burden while strengthening trust, transparency, and responsible innovation across the European data and AI ecosystem.

Keynotes:

• Prof. Raghavendra Selvan, University of Copenhagen
  “AI for Sustainable Compliance: Navigating ESG Data Complexity”
  

• Mark Dietrich, Technical Coordinator for SAGE – Green Deal Data Space
  “The Green Deal DS as a flexible, sovereign platform for regulatory reporting” (CSRD, ESPR, EUDR, CBAM, etc.)

• Tervel Bobev, KU Leuven
  “Open questions in the design and deployment of Regtech in the EU”

Panel Discussion:

Panel Discussion: Catalysts for Compliance and Data Innovation: AI, Data, and ESG

 Moderated by Till C. Lech and Natalie Bertels

Panelists:

• Raghavendra Selvan, University of Copenhagen
• Tervel Bobev, KU Leuven CITiP
• Mark Dietrichs, SAGE – Green Deal Dataspace
• Richard Stevens, IDC Europe
• Rob Smeets,  Philips

This panel will address:

• How to reduce compliance burden through automation and standardisation
• Best practices for ESG implementation in data-intensive sectors
• The role of data sharing and governance in enabling responsible innovation
• Opportunities for cross-sectoral collaboration and alignment with EU policy
• Killer Apps driven by compliance needs

Target Audience:

• Compliance and ESG officers in large and mid-sized enterprises
• Technology providers and data space operators
• Researchers in AI, legal informatics, and digital governance
• Policy makers and regulators

Presentations

Open questions in the design and deployment of Regtech in the EU – Tervel Bobev

Regulatory Compliance – Mark Dietrich

Navigating ESG Data Complexity of AI: Challenges and Opportunities – Raghavendra Selvan