Cybersecurity Policy Report, Lawmakers Agree on Changes to Europe’s AI Act, (May 8, 2026)

By Lynn Stanton

As part of a digital omnibus package, negotiators from the European Union Council and Parliament have reached an agreement on modifying certain rules under the EU’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act to ban “nudifier” apps and AI-assisted creation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), while postponing some obligations for AI systems “to prevent legal uncertainty,” according to a Parliament press release issued yesterday.

The agreement follows the European Commission’s unveiling of “targeted amendments” to European privacy law last fall, which critics said would gut the law and allow technology firms to benefit from looser rules around the use of Europeans’ data for training artificial intelligence systems, among other things (CPR, Nov. 19, 2025).

“The law postpones the application of certain parts of the AI Act to ensure that necessary standards and support measures, needed to clarify the application of the rules, are in place. Following the agreement, obligations on high-risk AI systems will apply: [f]rom 2 December 2027 for AI systems with a high-risk use case (including those involving biometrics, and those used in critical infrastructure, education, employment, law enforcement, and border management)” and “[f]rom 2 August 2028 for AI systems used as safety components and covered by EU sectoral legislation on safety and market surveillance,” the Parliament said.

From here, the agreement needs formal adoption by the Parliament and Council, after which it will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and take effect three days later.

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