Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen has clarified the European Commission’s staffing and budget plans under the Digital Services Act (DSA), rejecting allegations of creating a “permanent censorship and surveillance apparatus” in Brussels. In a response to a parliamentary question from MEPs Petra Steger (PfE) and Mary Khan (ESN), Virkkunen provided concrete figures: by end-2025, DSA implementation staff reached 202 full-time equivalents (FTEs) costing €29.21 million, with projections for 2026 of 270 FTEs and €34.82 million in staff expenses. She stressed that staffing levels are subject to annual budgetary scrutiny and do not include content moderation tasks, which remain under specific laws and judicial decisions rather than Commission control.
This disclosure follows a series of recent interventions by Virkkunen defending the EU’s digital policy. On April 15, she responded to allegations from the US House Judiciary Committee accusing the EU of internet censorship, emphasizing that EU digital governance respects free speech and aims at transparency. That same day, she outlined the Commission’s strategy to hold AI makers accountable for racist and discriminatory content, and proposed an EU-wide coordination mechanism for age verification to protect minors online. On April 16, she detailed the Commission’s content moderation approach under the DSA, balancing oversight and free speech, without proposing new rules or numerical targets.
The DSA staffing expansion also intersects with broader EU efforts to counter disinformation and foreign interference. On April 15, EEAS officials clashed with MEPs over whether the EU should prioritize defensive resilience or offensive deterrence against Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). Meanwhile, on April 14, Virkkunen defended the Commission’s role in electoral content oversight, rejecting claims of election interference, and Yle editor-in-chief Panu Pokkinen called for EU regulation of social media to curb fraud. Earlier, on April 10, Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič outlined plans to curb transnational left-wing extremism through digital platform controls.
Virkkunen’s latest response signals a moderate expansion of supervisory capacity, tightly linked to budget availability and regulatory needs. By emphasizing the absence of moderation authority, she aims to reassure civil society actors concerned about freedom of expression while maintaining robust oversight to protect users. The Commission’s transparency offers the European Parliament and Council critical insight into how the DSA governance structure evolves in practice, with annual budget reports and staffing levels expected to be revisited regularly.