EU Nations Approve Deal to Roll Back AI Restrictions

European Union member states and the European Parliament agreed early Thursday to push back the toughest deadlines under the bloc’s AI Act, giving enterprises more time to prepare for high-risk compliance. Under the provisional deal between negotiators for the European Parliament and European Council, high-risk AI systems will face new deadlines of Dec. 2, 2027 for stand-alone systems and Aug. 2, 2028 for AI used in products covered by EU sectoral safety rules, a European Parliament statement said. The original deadline was Aug. 2, 2026. The deal still needs formal adoption by both Parliament and Council before it can enter into law. The co-legislators intend to complete that step before Aug. 2. Until they do, the original deadline applies as drafted. “Today’s agreement on the AI Act significantly supports our companies by reducing recurring administrative costs,” Marilena Raouna, Cyprus’s deputy minister for European affairs, said in a statement from the Council, which is composed of

EU member states and the European Parliament failed to agree on changes that would have softened the bloc’s AI Act and pushed back its toughest enforcement deadlines. The talks ran for about 12 hours on Tuesday and ended without an agreement, Reuters reported, citing a Cypriot official who said it had not been possible to reach a deal with Parliament. Cyprus holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, which negotiates on behalf of member states. According to the report, the talks broke down over the insistence by some member states and lawmakers that industries already covered by sectoral safety rules be left out of the AI legislation. Tuesday’s session was the last political trilogue on the Digital Omnibus on AI scheduled before formal adoption, according to the European Parliament’s legislative tracker. Talks will resume in May, and if no deal is reached before August 2, the AI Act’s high-risk obligations will apply that day as originally drafted. The European Parliament’s co-ra