Brussels, BELGIUM – Early this morning, EU negotiators agreed on the final text of the AI Omnibus. The deal sets out measures to simplify the AI Act, including delays to compliance deadlines.
Struck rather swiftly, despite delays, the agreement nonetheless falls short. It misses a clear opportunity to deliver genuine simplification in key areas. Indeed, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Cypriot EU Council Presidency rejected various simplification measures originally proposed by the European Commission – including the removal of the requirement for AI systems deemed ‘non-high-risk’ to be registered in an EU database.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) welcomes the postponement of the application of the Act’s ‘high-risk’ AI obligations. This, however, is the bare minimum given persistent delays in the delivery of EU technical standards that are necessary for compliance, but still missing to date.
At the same time, co-legislators failed to introduce a pragmatic 12-month grace period for the labelling and marking of generative AI outputs under Article 50(2) and (4) of the AI Act. As a result, AI developers and deployers will have almost no time to comply by 2 August.
These obligations also remain unclear, with a code of practice and guidelines from the AI Office still pending, only expected to be finalised around the same time the rules take effect.
With the Omnibus merely making limited changes to the AI Act, and given ongoing legal uncertainty, CCIA Europe calls on the European Commission to provide timely, proportionate guidance and codes of practice without any further delay.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Europe’s AI Policy Lead, Boniface de Champris:
“While the AI Omnibus was adopted with notable speed, it is disappointing to see so much effort and political grandstanding yield so few results at the end of the ride.”
“Given the minimal improvements made to the AI Act, the glaring gap between political rhetoric on regulatory simplification and concrete outcomes is hard to ignore.”
