Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) 2024/1689 and (EU) 2018/1139 as regards the simplification of the implementation of harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Digital Omnibus on AI)

This Council text reframes the Digital Omnibus on AI as a targeted implementation-correction instrument rather than a reopening of the AI Act’s core architecture. Its central move is to postpone the application of the main high-risk AI obligations until compliance infrastructure is available, while introducing hard-stop dates of 2 December 2027 for Annex III systems and 2 August 2028 for Annex I systems. It also softens the AI literacy duty, simplifies some registration and conformity routes, extends relief to small mid-cap undertakings, clarifies AI Office competence for certain GPAI-based and VLOP/VLOSE systems, and adds new prohibited-practice rules on non-consensual sexual or intimate synthetic content. The document’s most revealing sentence states that the amended timeline should ‘align the implementation timeline and set the date for the application’ of the high-risk rules to the availability of compliance-support measures, especially standards, common specifications, and guidance (Recital 22).