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reportEU AI Act

The EU AI Act so far: every milestone from adoption to mid-2026

A dated, primary-sourced timeline of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689: entry into force, the phased application dates, and the Digital Omnibus deferrals.

Daman Kaur

The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) is the first comprehensive statutory regime for artificial intelligence. It entered into force on 1 August 2024 and applies in phases. As of 15 July 2026, a simplification package known as the Digital Omnibus has been adopted by the EU co-legislators but has not yet been published in the Official Journal — so it is not yet in force, and the Act’s original application dates still govern.

That distinction matters for anyone planning compliance: what has been agreed and what is legally operative are, for now, two different things.

The core timeline

Date Milestone Source
13 March 2024 European Parliament adopts the Act (523–46) Article 113 regime
21 May 2024 Council of the EU gives final approval —
12 July 2024 Published in the Official Journal (OJ L, 2024/1689) EUR-Lex
1 August 2024 Entry into force (Art. 113) Art. 113
2 February 2025 Prohibited practices (Art. 5) and AI-literacy duty (Art. 4) apply Art. 113(a)
2 August 2025 GPAI model obligations, governance, and penalties apply Art. 113(b)
2 August 2026 General application date — most high-risk (Annex III) obligations Art. 113 chapeau
2 August 2027 Extended transition for high-risk AI in regulated products Art. 113(c)

Guidelines and codes

Two interpretive instruments sit alongside the statute. On 4 February 2025 the Commission published non-binding guidelines on the Article 5 prohibited practices. On 10 July 2025 the AI Office published the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice — a voluntary tool covering transparency, copyright, and safety and security — to support compliance with the Article 53 and 55 obligations for GPAI models.

Neither is binding law. Authoritative interpretation of the Act rests with the Court of Justice.

The Digital Omnibus: adopted, not yet in force

In late 2025 the Commission moved to defer parts of the timetable. The sequence:

  • 19 November 2025: the Commission publishes the Digital Omnibus on AI, a legislative proposal to simplify and postpone certain obligations.
  • 7 May 2026: Parliament and Council reach a provisional agreement in trilogue.
  • 16 June 2026: the European Parliament adopts the agreed text.
  • 29 June 2026: the Council gives its final approval, completing co-legislator adoption.

As adopted, the Omnibus would defer the high-risk application dates to 2 December 2027 for stand-alone Annex III systems and 2 August 2028 for high-risk AI embedded in regulated products, and would add a new prohibited practice targeting AI-generated child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate imagery, with compliance envisaged by 2 December 2026.

The caveat is decisive. As of 15 July 2026 the amending regulation had not yet been signed and published in the Official Journal. Until that publication, Article 113’s original dates, including 2 August 2026 for general application, remain the operative legal text. The deferrals are agreed, not yet effective.

What to watch

The next hard event is the Official Journal publication of the Digital Omnibus, which will fix the revised dates and bring the new prohibition into the timetable. From there, the monthly EU AI Act updates on this site track enforcement and guidance as they land.

Sources