The Council of the EU signed off on the Digital Omnibus on AI on June 29, formalizing a two-track enforcement calendar that keeps the August 2, 2026 penalty date live for general-purpose AI while pushing most high-risk obligations back by 18 months. Parliament endorsed the package on June 16. Entry into force lands the third day after publication in the Official Journal.

The split is the point. GPAI penalties and Article 50 content-transparency rules stay on schedule. Stand-alone high-risk systems under Annex III slide from August 2, 2026 to December 2, 2027. High-risk AI embedded in regulated products under Annex I moves to August 2, 2028.

Gibson Dunn describes implementation as “visibly off track”, with European standardisation bodies not expected to deliver key high-risk standards until late 2026. That’s the actual reason for the delay, and it’s why the final text replaces the Commission’s conditional trigger mechanism with fixed dates. Brussels prefers a calendar it controls to one contingent on standards bodies it doesn’t.

The Omnibus also tightens where it loosens. Nudification apps and CSAM generators become prohibited practices under Article 5 from December 2, 2026. The grace period for AI-generated content labelling was cut from six months to three. Morgan Lewis notes the “safety component” definition narrows, dropping user-assistance, optimisation and quality-control AI out of the high-risk perimeter entirely.

DLA Piper flags the procedural fragility: if the Omnibus misses Official Journal publication before August 2, the original high-risk timeline snaps back as written. The EU AI Office’s supervisory role, meanwhile, is reinforced under the agreement.

This is the GDPR pattern replaying at compressed tempo. The 2018 rollout also arrived with staggered enforcement and last-minute guidance gaps. What Brussels learned then, and is applying now, is that a regulation shipping without workable standards becomes an own-goal. Better to bank the enforceable pieces than to defend a calendar the machinery can’t meet.

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