AI Regulation: Partial postponement no longer ruled out

EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen said the Commission should not rule out postponing parts of the AI Act in the coming months if standards and specifications are not ready in time. She made the comment at a ministerial meeting in Luxembourg, where Germany expressed openness to extending deadlines due to delays in technical standards. Virkkunen emphasized that the EU must uphold its goal of creating trustworthy AI in Europe and legal certainty, but acknowledged that prerequisites for future parts of the AI Act are currently lacking. Some EU member states hope for a partial postponement of the AI Regulation's application, while the Commission seeks to reduce bureaucracy through an omnibus law on digital rules. No exact date has been set for the omnibus project, but it is to be drafted in the coming months and discussed with the European Parliament and Council by the College of Commissioners. The AI Act has partially come into force, but technical standards and the Code of Practice for general-purpose AI models remain missing, prompting complaints from providers about insufficient preparation time.