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Regulation Tracker / EU AI Act / Chapter VII · Section 1

Article 68
Scientific panel of independent experts

Chapter VII — AI Office, Section 1 — AI Office. 8 distinct duties, powers or definitions are coded from this article, applying from 2025-08-02.

Amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI), in force 2026-07-27 — about 107 words changed. The text below is the consolidated version of 27 July 2026; the 2024 text and the amending regulation are on EUR-Lex.

official text: EUR-Lex (consolidated 27 Jul 2026) · text © European Union (Decision 2011/833/EU) · coding CC BY 4.0 · data: obligations.json · Hugging Face · GitHub

The text

1. The Commission shall, by means of an implementing act, make provisions on the establishment of a scientific panel of independent experts (the ‘scientific panel’) intended to support the enforcement activities under this Regulation. That implementing act shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 98(2).

2. The scientific panel shall consist of experts selected by the Commission on the basis of up-to-date scientific or technical expertise in the field of AI necessary for the tasks set out in paragraph 3, and shall be able to demonstrate meeting all of the following conditions:

  1. (a)having particular expertise and competence and scientific or technical expertise in the field of AI;
  2. (b)independence from any provider of AI systems or general-purpose AI models;
  3. (c)an ability to carry out activities diligently, accurately and objectively.

3. The scientific panel shall advise and support the AI Office, in particular with regard to the following tasks:

  1. (a)supporting the implementation and enforcement of this Regulation as regards general-purpose AI models and systems, in particular by: (i) alerting the AI Office of possible systemic risks at Union level of general-purpose AI models, in accordance with Article 90; (ii) contributing to the development of tools and methodologies for evaluating capabilities of general-purpose AI models and systems, including through benchmarks; (iii) providing advice on the classification of general-purpose AI models with systemic risk; (iv) providing advice on the classification of various general-purpose AI models and systems; (v) contributing to the development of tools and templates;
  2. (b)supporting the work of market surveillance authorities, at their request;
  3. (c)supporting cross-border market surveillance activities as referred to in Article 74(11), without prejudice to the powers of market surveillance authorities;
  4. (d)supporting the AI Office in carrying out its duties in the context of the Union safeguard procedure pursuant to Article 81.

4. The experts on the scientific panel shall perform their tasks with impartiality and objectivity, and shall ensure the confidentiality of information and data obtained in carrying out their tasks and activities. They shall neither seek nor take instructions from anyone when exercising their tasks under paragraph 3. Each expert shall draw up a declaration of interests, which shall be made publicly available. The AI Office shall establish systems and procedures to actively manage and prevent potential conflicts of interest.

5. The implementing act referred to in paragraph 1 shall include provisions on the conditions, procedures and detailed arrangements for the scientific panel and its members to issue alerts, and to request the assistance of the AI Office for the performance of the tasks of the scientific panel.

What it requires, coded

SafeLegalAI's reading of each duty in this article: who, what, from when, under which fine tier, and whether it reaches a firm, chambers, court or legal-AI vendor. Descriptive, not advice; the quoted words are the Regulation's.

  1. Art. 68(1)Delegated or implementing actNot tier-specific

    The Commission must adopt an implementing act establishing a scientific panel of independent experts to support enforcement activities under the AI Act.

    "The Commission shall, by means of an implementing act, make provisions on the establishment of a scientific panel of independent experts"
    Who
    Commission
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Governance enforcement-support row with indirect relevance to legal-AI providers.
    See
    Art. 98(2)

  2. Art. 68(2)Governance institutionalNot tier-specific

    The scientific panel must consist of experts selected by the Commission for current AI scientific or technical expertise and ability to demonstrate expertise, independence from AI-system or GPAI-model providers, and diligent, accurate, objective work.

    "The scientific panel shall consist of experts selected by the Commission on the basis of up-to-date scientific or technical expertise in the field of AI"
    Who
    Commission
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Panel-selection governance with indirect relevance to legal-AI enforcement.

  3. Art. 68(3) (a)Governance institutionalGPAI with systemic risk

    The scientific panel must advise and support the AI Office on GPAI-model and system implementation and enforcement, including alerts, evaluation tools, systemic-risk classification advice, broader GPAI classification advice, and tools and templates.

    "The scientific panel shall advise and support the AI Office, in particular with regard to the following tasks:"
    Who
    Scientific panel
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Indirectly relevant to legal-AI providers using GPAI models subject to AI Office enforcement.
    See
    Art. 90 · AI Office

  4. Art. 68(3) (b)Support measureNot tier-specific

    The scientific panel must support market surveillance authorities at their request.

    "supporting the work of market surveillance authorities, at their request"
    Who
    Scientific panel
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Enforcement-support role that may indirectly affect legal-AI providers under market surveillance.
    See
    Market surveillance authorities

  5. Art. 68(3) (c)Support measureNot tier-specific

    The scientific panel must support cross-border market surveillance activities under Article 74(11), without prejudice to market surveillance authority powers.

    "supporting cross-border market surveillance activities as referred to in Article 74(11), without prejudice to the powers of market surveillance authorities"
    Who
    Scientific panel
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Cross-border enforcement support may indirectly affect legal-AI providers operating in multiple Member States.
    See
    Art. 74(11)

  6. Art. 68(3) (d)Support measureNot tier-specific

    The scientific panel must support the AI Office in carrying out duties under the Union safeguard procedure in Article 81.

    "supporting the AI Office in carrying out its duties in the context of the Union safeguard procedure pursuant to Article 81"
    Who
    Scientific panel
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Union safeguard support indirectly affects legal-AI systems subject to EU-level measures.
    See
    Art. 81

  7. Art. 68(4)Governance institutionalNot tier-specific

    Scientific-panel experts must act impartially and objectively, keep information confidential, avoid seeking or taking instructions, publish declarations of interests, and the AI Office must manage and prevent conflicts of interest.

    "The experts on the scientific panel shall perform their tasks with impartiality and objectivity, and shall ensure the confidentiality of information and data obtained"
    Who
    Scientific panel, AI Office
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Governance integrity row with indirect relevance to legal-AI enforcement.
    See
    AI Office

  8. Art. 68(5)Delegated or implementing actNot tier-specific

    The Commission implementing act establishing the scientific panel must include conditions, procedures and detailed arrangements for panel members to issue alerts and request AI Office assistance.

    "The implementing act referred to in paragraph 1 shall include provisions on the conditions, procedures and detailed arrangements for the scientific panel and its members to issue alerts"
    Who
    Commission
    From
    (Art. 113(b))
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Procedural governance for scientific-panel enforcement support with indirect legal-practice relevance.
    See
    Art. 68(1) · AI Office

Cite

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 68 (Scientific panel of independent experts), as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, consolidated text of 27 July 2026, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/2026-07-27/eng#art_68 — text © European Union; only the Official Journal is authentic. Coding: SafeLegalAI (published by Cognesio LLP), "EU AI Act, structured", safelegalai.com/regulation/eu-ai-act/article-68, accessed 2026-09-08, CC BY 4.0.