Royal Decree 817/2023 of 8 November establishing a controlled testing environment for compliance with the proposed EU Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence

Summary

Sets up a controlled testing environment (regulatory sandbox), launched with the European Commission's collaboration, to test how AI systems that may pose risks to safety, health and fundamental rights can meet requirements of the then-proposed EU AI Regulation. Selected providers and users of high-risk systems, general-purpose systems and foundation models implement risk management, data quality, technical documentation, logging, transparency, human oversight, and accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity requirements, self-assess compliance, set up post-market monitoring and report serious incidents. The competent body publishes a report on results, good practices and recommendations.

Language

English translation by RegAlert (regalert.today), a commercial regulatory database; the translator is not named, not by a public body Open it. The Spanish text is authoritative.

Safety topics

Status notes

Dated 8 November 2023 and published in BOE No. 268 of 9 November 2023; in force from 10 November 2023, the day after publication. Under its second final provision it was valid for at most 36 months from entry into force, that is to November 2026, or until the EU Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence became applicable in Spain; Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 applies generally from 2 August 2026, with earlier dates for some chapters and a later one for the high-risk rules of Article 6(1). The sandbox took the position of the Council of the EU of 25 November 2022 on the proposed Regulation as its reference, and the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence was the competent body. The pilot, whose call was opened by a resolution of the Secretary of State of 20 December 2024, has finished and its results report has been published. The organic law bill on AI that the Government sent to the Congress in 2026 would expressly repeal the decree, given the obligation to set up a new AI regulatory sandbox under the EU Regulation.

Sources

Open the official source https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/2023/11/08/817

Local copy

Verification

History

1. 2026-10-17english_version: – → {"kind": "third-party translation", "url": "https://regalert.today/document/7d59 — required and missing; an English text of the decree is on regalert.today (stored), a commercial database that does not name a translator: third-party translation2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2. 2026-10-17notes: Time-limited: the decree stays in force for at most 36 months from 10 Nov 2023 ( → Dated 8 November 2023 and published in BOE No. 268 of 9 November 2023; in force — rewritten from the decree, the AI Regulation's Article 113, the ministry's sandbox page and the bill's repealing provision; version 1's repeated validity clause, process remarks and unsupported claim that sandbox calls continued in 2026 are gone2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
3. 2026-10-17related: [{"slug": "es-aesia-statute-rd-729-2023", "id": "ES-01"}, {"slug": "eu-ai-act", → [{"id": "ES-01", "slug": "es-aesia-statute-rd-729-2023"}, {"id": "EU-03", "slug" — added ES-03: the organic law bill would expressly repeal this decree2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
4. 2026-10-17safety_topics: ["evaluation & testing", "risk-based classification", "general-purpose / frontie → ["evaluation & testing", "risk-based classification", "general-purpose / frontie — added 'human oversight' (Article 11.1 g) and 'incident reporting' (Article 15)2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
5. 2026-10-17summary: Sets up Spain's AI regulatory sandbox, the EU's first pilot for testing complian → Sets up a controlled testing environment (regulatory sandbox), launched with the — rewritten from Articles 1, 5, 11, 13, 14 and 15 and the second additional provision; version 1's 'the EU's first pilot' is not what the preamble says ('el primer entorno controlado de pruebas' launched with the Commission's collaboration), and the summary now names the requirements, incident reporting and the published report2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
6. 2026-10-17date_published: 2023-11-09 → 2023-11-08 — 2023-11-09 was the BOE publication date; the field takes the adoption date, 8 Nov 2023 (BOE 'Fecha de disposición' and the signature), as ES-01 does for its royal decree; publication on 9 Nov moves to the notes2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
7. 2026-10-17status: In force → Lapsed — lapsed under its own second final provision: the EU AI Regulation has applied generally since 2 Aug 2026 (Article 113), which is earlier than the 36-month limit; the sandbox pilot has finished2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

AESIA Statute Spain · In force

EU AI Act European Union · Partially in force

Spanish draft AI governance law Spain · Draft / proposed

Citation

Government of Spain (Council of Ministers). Royal Decree 817/2023 of 8 November establishing a controlled testing environment for compliance with the proposed EU Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence [Real Decreto 817/2023; BOE-A-2023-22767 (BOE núm. 268)]. 2023-11-08. https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/2023/11/08/817. Status: Lapsed; verified 2026-10-17 (level A). Local copy archive/ES-02/2026-10-11/official.html retrieved 2026-10-11 14:02:46 UTC, SHA-256 ebc283abbb86e6f78f6065278debbb1343f7490553bce2cc4144efad16ee7a32. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record ES-02.

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