EU finalises Digital Omnibus, delaying the AI Act's high-risk rules to 2027
Originally announced by Council of the EU . We link the primary source so you can read it for yourself.
The Council of the European Union has given final approval to the Digital Omnibus, a package of amendments that simplifies and delays parts of the EU AI Act. It is the most significant change to the Act’s timeline since it came into force, and it directly affects anyone planning around its high-risk obligations.
What changed
According to the Council, the package defers the Act’s heaviest obligations. The use-case-based high-risk rules, originally due to apply from 2 August 2026, move to December 2027, roughly sixteen months later. Product-related high-risk obligations move to 2028. The package also lightens some administrative requirements and adds new prohibitions, including on AI that generates child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate imagery.
Importantly, the parts of the Act already in force are not rolled back. The prohibited-practice bans, live since February 2025, and the obligations on general-purpose AI models, live since August 2025, remain in place.
Why it matters
For organisations building or deploying AI systems that fall into the high-risk category, the deferral is real breathing room, though not a reprieve: the obligations are delayed, not removed. For the local AI audience specifically, the model-level rules and the prohibitions are the parts most likely to touch you, and those stay in effect. Running a model on your own hardware does not place it outside the Act.
The context and the caveat
This is a fast-moving area, and the position described here reflects the situation at the time of writing, shortly after the Council’s approval and ahead of publication in the Official Journal. Dates and details in AI regulation are shifting as the law is implemented, so treat this as a summary rather than a definitive statement, and confirm the current position against the official sources.
For a fuller explanation of how the Act is structured and what it means for local and open models, see our guides on the EU AI Act and the Act and local, open models. This coverage is general information, not legal advice.