Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 July 2026 amending Regulations (EU) 2024/1689, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2023/1230 as regards the simplification of the implementation of harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Digital Omnibus on AI)

Summary

Amends the AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) to simplify its implementation. It moves the application of the high-risk rules from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027 for Annex III systems and 2 August 2028 for systems covered by Annex I product legislation, and adds prohibitions, applying from 2 December 2026, on AI systems that generate non-consensual intimate or sexually explicit material of identifiable people or child sexual abuse material. It makes the AI Office exclusively competent for AI systems built on a provider's own general-purpose AI models and for AI in very large online platforms and search engines, and extends measures for SMEs to small mid-cap enterprises.

Safety topics

Status notes

Commission proposal COM(2025) 836 final of 19 November 2025 (procedure 2025/0359(COD)), part of the digital omnibus package. As proposed, the high-risk rules would have applied 6 months (Annex III) or 12 months (Annex I) after a Commission decision confirming that support measures such as harmonised standards were available, and in any case by 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028; generative AI systems already on the market would have had until 2 February 2027 to meet the Article 50(2) marking obligation. The adopted text fixes the high-risk dates and sets 2 December 2026 for marking. The European Parliament adopted its position on 16 June 2026 and the Council its decision on 29 June 2026; the act was signed at Strasbourg on 8 July 2026, published in the Official Journal (OJ L, 2026/1744) on 24 July 2026 and entered into force on 27 July 2026, the third day after publication. Dates set by the amendments: the new prohibitions in Article 5(1), points (ba) and (bb), apply from 2 December 2026; providers of generative AI systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026 must meet the Article 50(2) marking obligation by 2 December 2026; each Member State must have at least one national AI regulatory sandbox operational by 2 August 2027; the high-risk rules of Chapter III, Sections 1 to 3, apply from 2 December 2027 for Annex III systems and from 2 August 2028 for Annex I systems. The AI Office's exclusive competence for systems based on general-purpose AI models excludes AI systems related to Annex I products, systems in point 2 of Annex III, systems of law enforcement and border management authorities and financial institutions that fall under Article 74(6), and systems used in the administration of justice. The regulation also simplifies registration in the EU database of systems that providers assess as not high-risk under Article 6(3), allows processing of special categories of personal data for bias detection and correction where strictly necessary, lets the AI Office set up an AI regulatory sandbox at Union level, and extends real-world testing to high-risk systems covered by Annex I legislation. Machinery moves from Section A to Section B of Annex I, and the Commission is to adopt delegated acts adding AI requirements to the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, applying by 2 August 2028. It also amends Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 on civil aviation.

Sources

Open the official source https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj/eng

Secondary source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/ai-omnibus-enters-force

Local copy

Verification

History

1. 2026-10-18related: [{"slug": "eu-ai-act", "id": "EU-03"}] → [{"slug": "eu-ai-act", "id": "EU-03"}, {"id": "EU-02", "slug": "eu-ai-office-dec — two-way link added: EU-02, EU-06, EU-09, EU-14, EU-15, EU-19, NL-01, NO-02 link(s) to EU-182026-10-18-fix-related-links · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2. 2026-10-17notes: Commission proposal COM(2025) 836 of 19 Nov 2025, part of the Digital Omnibus/si → Commission proposal COM(2025) 836 final of 19 November 2025 (procedure 2025/0359 — rewritten from the stored text: the Official Journal date 24 July 2026 is now in the stored EUR-Lex page; the vote count, Council general approach, provisional agreement and Coreper dates, 'reinstates' for the Article 6(3) registration (the text says it is simplified) and the remark on the separate data omnibus (a register decision, not a fact about the act) removed; exclusions from the AI Office's competence given as the text lists them; the proposal's number, date, procedure and date mechanism now come from the stored proposal (version 1's 'maximum delay of 16 months' is given as the proposal's own dates, and its 'grace period cut from 6 to 3 months' was wrong: the proposal gave until 2 February 2027 and the act gives until 2 December 2026)2026-10-17-recheck-europe-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
3. 2026-10-17summary: Targeted amendment to the AI Act. It postpones high-risk obligations to fixed da → Amends the AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) to simplify its implementation. It — checked against the regulation: the new prohibitions are worded as Article 5(1)(ba) and (bb) define them and dated; 'shortens the grace period' (a comparison with the proposal the stored text does not make) removed; the AI Office's competence described as the new Article 75(1) gives it2026-10-17-recheck-europe-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
4. 2026-10-17secondary_url: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/06/29/artificial-in → https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/ai-omnibus-enters-force — the Commission's news item 'AI Omnibus enters into force' (27 July 2026), stored in this run, in place of the Council press release that returned HTTP 403 on both archiver attempts2026-10-17-recheck-europe-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
5. 2026-10-17official_identifier: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744; proposal COM(2025) 836; procedure 2025/0359(COD) → Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 — the field holds the act's citable number; the proposal and procedure numbers are not identifiers of the regulation and are not in its stored text2026-10-17-recheck-europe-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
6. 2026-10-17date_last_updated: 2026-07-27 → – — 27 July 2026 is the entry into force, already in date_in_force; no stored source shows an amendment of Regulation (EU) 2026/17442026-10-17-recheck-europe-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

EU AI Act European Union · Partially in force

European AI Office Decision European Union · In force

Guidelines on prohibited AI practices European Union · Published (non-binding, current)

AI Act standardisation request to CEN-CENELEC European Union · In force

Draft high-risk classification guidelines (Art. 6) European Union · Draft / proposed

AI Act Art. 112 review report 2026 European Union · Published (non-binding, current)

Article 50 transparency guidelines European Union · Published (non-binding, current)

Netherlands AI Act implementation act (draft) Netherlands · Draft / proposed

Norwegian AI Act draft (KI-loven) Norway · Draft / proposed

Citation

European Parliament and Council of the European Union. Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 July 2026 amending Regulations (EU) 2024/1689, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2023/1230 as regards the simplification of the implementation of harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Digital Omnibus on AI) [Regulation (EU) 2026/1744]. 2026-07-08. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj/eng. Status: In force; verified 2026-10-17 (level A). Local copy archive/EU-18/2026-10-17/official.html retrieved 2026-10-17 18:18:36 UTC, SHA-256 5ac86dc0f3bf77a38b08f5c1e267952abdae1c21bf312a810aa7db24069a55c1. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record EU-18.

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