On July 13, 2026, the Council of the European Union's public register surfaced the draft final act of the Digital Omnibus on AI (document PE-30-2026-REV-1, dated July 8, 2026, interinstitutional file 2025/0359(COD)), the last procedural milestone before the text is published in the Official Journal. The regulation amends Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 (civil aviation) and Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 (Machinery Regulation) to simplify the harmonised AI rules, and it enters into force on the third day after OJ publication if that publication lands before August 2, 2026, the date the AI Act's general regime becomes applicable.
For AI compliance leads, this is the operative text to read now. The European Parliament endorsed the consolidated version on June 16, 2026, the Council adopted it on June 29, 2026, and revision REV-1 dated July 8, 2026 captures the final linguistic and numbering adjustments. The act is published in 22 EU official languages alongside the EN master, so national supervisory authorities and in-house counsel can start alignment work before OJ publication.
What changes in the AI Act itself?
The Omnibus is a simplification package, not a repeal. Three buckets of changes matter for high-risk AI duty holders:
- Deferral of Annex III high-risk obligations from August 2, 2027 to December 2, 2027, conditional on the Omnibus being formally adopted before August 2, 2026.
- Deferral of Article 6(1) Annex I high-risk obligations from August 2, 2027 to August 2, 2028, under the same conditionality.
- Early application of two narrow provisions, the intimate-imagery prohibition and the Article 50(2) transparency watermarking duty, from December 2, 2026 instead of August 2, 2026.
Aviation (Regulation 2018/1139) and machinery (Regulation 2023/1230) receive conforming amendments so that AI-enabled products in those verticals keep a single conformity assessment path under the AI Act, removing duplication between the AI Act high-risk regime and the existing sectoral conformity frameworks. The Council's meeting record flags subject matters SIMPL, CYBER, DATAPROTECT, CODEC, ANTICI, TELECOM, signalling that the Omnibus touches cybersecurity, data protection and telecom-adjacent obligations, not only the AI Act high-risk calendar.
Who has to act, and by when?
The conditional dates are the heart of the practical impact. If OJ publication slips past August 2, 2026, the simplification package lapses for the 2026-2027 cycle and the original AI Act calendar applies unchanged. If publication lands in July 2026, the new ladder takes effect the third day after publication.
| Date | Obligation in force | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| August 2, 2026 | AI Act general applicability and GPAI Code of Practice (unchanged baseline) | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 |
| Third day after OJ publication | Digital Omnibus on AI enters into force, conditional on publication before August 2, 2026 | Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation amending 2024/1689, 2018/1139, 2023/1230) |
| December 2, 2026 | Intimate-imagery prohibition and Article 50(2) transparency watermarking apply early (conditional) | Digital Omnibus on AI |
| December 2, 2027 | Annex III high-risk obligations deferred to this date (conditional; original date was August 2, 2027) | Digital Omnibus on AI |
| August 2, 2028 | Article 6(1) Annex I high-risk obligations deferred to this date (conditional; original date was August 2, 2027) | Digital Omnibus on AI |
AI compliance leads at providers and deployers of high-risk systems, AI-enabled aviation OEMs under EASA, and AI-enabled machinery manufacturers under the Machinery Regulation are the directly impacted populations. GPAI model providers are not affected: their August 2, 2026 obligations stand unchanged.
What does the cross-vertical simplification mean for aviation and machinery OEMs?
For AI-enabled aviation products certified under Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 and AI-enabled machinery CE-marked under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, the Omnibus removes double conformity assessment. A high-risk AI component embedded in an EASA-certified system or CE-marked machinery will be assessed once under the AI Act's risk-management and data-governance duties, with the sectoral regulation's safety logic preserved. That is a real reduction in documentation overhead for OEMs who currently maintain parallel technical files for the AI component and the host product.
What compliance teams should do now
Five concrete steps before OJ publication:
- Treat the REV-1 text as the operative draft. Review the consolidated PDF on the Council register, not the June 18 INIT version, because REV-1 captures the final agreed wording.
- Update internal AI Act readiness trackers with the conditional December 2, 2027 Annex III date and the August 2, 2028 Annex I date, but keep the original August 2, 2027 dates flagged as the fallback in case OJ publication slips past August 2, 2026.
- For intimate-imagery and Article 50(2) transparency features, pull the readiness date forward to December 2, 2026.
- For AI-enabled aviation and machinery products, consolidate the parallel technical files now so that the single conformity assessment path is ready the day the Omnibus enters into force.
- Brief commercial counsel and procurement: vendor contracts referencing "AI Act high-risk obligations from August 2, 2027" should be amended to reflect the conditional deferral.
Obsidian's continuous per-jurisdiction monitoring surfaces Council register filings and OJ publication the moment they land, so an AI compliance team can flip its readiness calendar the day the Omnibus enters into force instead of re-checking the OJ daily.
Take advantage of this real-time watch
Next steps for AI compliance leads: download the REV-1 consolidated text from the Council register, confirm with national supervisory authorities whether they will publish guidance on the conditional dates, brief the AI governance committee on the December 2, 2026 early obligations, and lock the August 2, 2026 OJ watch into the calendar.
