EU negotiators provisionally agree to delay high‑risk AI compliance deadlines

EU Council presidency and European Parliament negotiators reached a provisional agreement on May 7 to simplify parts of the bloc’s AI Act and push back compliance deadlines for many high-risk systems. The deal forms part of the European Union’s wider “Omnibus VII” simplification package and still requires formal adoption by both institutions before it becomes law. Under the compromise, many stand-alone high-risk AI systems would move from an August 2026 compliance date to December 2027, while some product-related systems would move to August 2028. ### Which AI systems get more time under the provisional deal? The May 7 agreement would delay obligations for high-risk AI systems classified under Article 6(2) and Annex III until December 2, 2027, according to the Council compromise text and legal analyses published this week. Those are the stand-alone systems that cover use cases such as employment, education, access to services and some law-enforcement contexts under the AI Act’s risk framework. (consilium.europa.eu) The Council said product-related high-risk systems classified under Article 6(1) and Annex I would instead apply from August 2, 2028. That category covers AI systems used as safety components of products already regulated under sectoral product-safety laws. ### Why did EU negotiators move the deadlines? (dig.watch) The Council said the delay is meant to address implementation problems tied to missing harmonised standards, guidance and national competent authorities. The compromise text, as reported by Digital Watch, says the later dates are intended to give the compliance system time to catch up with the law’s original schedule. (consilium.europa.eu) Proskauer said the practical effect is to move the compliance date for many high-risk systems from August 2, 2026, to December 2, 2027, while keeping the underlying compliance work in place. Hogan Lovells said the agreement reflects lawmakers’ recognition that AI Act compliance requires technical standards and assessment tools that are not yet fully available. (consilium.europa.eu) ### What else changes besides the dates? The March 13 Council position said the text reinstates an obligation for providers to register high-risk AI systems in the EU database even when they consider a system exempt from high-risk classification. That change broadens transparency and documentation requirements around systems that companies may argue fall outside the strictest obligations. (proskauer.com) The same Council position also said the amendments exclude machinery from overlapping AI Act requirements where sector-specific product rules already apply. IAPP and other legal summaries said that clarification was designed to reduce duplicate obligations between the AI Act and existing machinery and product-safety regimes. ### Does the delay mean companies can pause compliance work? (consilium.europa.eu) The provisional agreement does not remove the AI Act’s high-risk regime; it changes the timetable. Mondaq, summarizing the deal on May 15, said companies still need to identify in-scope systems, define internal ownership and prepare the documentation and governance artifacts the law will require once the new dates arrive. (iapp.org) Skadden said the postponed obligations still cover familiar high-risk use cases such as biometric identification and recruitment screening. That means providers and deployers working on those systems still face the same core compliance build-out, only on a longer runway if the amendment is formally adopted. ### Who still has to sign off before the delay takes effect? (mondaq.com) The Council’s May 7 statement said the agreement is provisional and subject to formal adoption by the Council and the European Parliament. Proskauer said the revised dates will not take effect unless both institutions complete that approval process. (skadden.com) Computerworld reported that lawmakers would need to adopt the deal before August 2 for the new timetable to avoid the original 2026 deadline taking hold for the affected systems. The next public milestones will come through formal votes and publication of the amending text in the EU legislative process. (computerworld.com) (consilium.europa.eu)