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The Digital Omnibus on AI is now law. On 24 July 2026 the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) published Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of 8 July 2026, amending Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the AI Act) together with Regulations (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2023/1230, to simplify the implementation of the harmonised rules on artificial intelligence. The text enters into force on the third day following its publication, that is on 27 July 2026. We thus update our earlier analysis, which had stopped on the eve of publication.
The element that was missing: number, date and entry into force
The measure is Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (file PE/30/2026/REV/1, European Legislation Identifier ELI reg/2026/1744), dated 8 July 2026 and published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2026. Given the proximity of the 2 August 2026 deadline, the legislator provided for its entry into force «as a matter of urgency» on the third day following publication, that is on 27 July 2026. The general body of the AI Act’s provisions, in any event, starts to apply from 2 August 2026.
Which acts it amends
Besides the AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689), the regulation amends Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 on civil aviation and Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery products (the Machinery Regulation): a sign of how the rules on artificial intelligence intertwine with sectoral product-safety legislation.
What becomes operative
The core of the reform is the new timeline for high-risk AI systems: obligations will apply from 2 December 2027 for stand-alone systems and from 2 August 2028 for those embedded as safety components in products already covered by sectoral legislation. Alongside the postponement, the grace period for marking AI-generated or manipulated content is cut from six to three months, with a deadline of 2 December 2026; the deadline for national regulatory sandboxes is pushed to 2 August 2027; the SME simplifications are extended to small mid-caps; the new Article 5 bans systems that generate or manipulate non-consensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material. The detailed timeline is in our dedicated article.
Not to be confused with the data Digital Omnibus
The parallel data-protection Digital Omnibus (COM(2025) 837), which amends Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the GDPR), remains distinct and is still a proposal under negotiation within the Council. We wrote about it here.
In short
With the publication of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 the wait is over: the AI Act’s new deadlines are no longer a hypothesis but law in force. For those who design and place AI systems on the market, the first task is to update the internal calendar to the dates now set.
Sources
EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 · ELI reg/2026/1744 · Council of the EU, press release 29 June 2026 · EUR-Lex, proposal COM(2025) 836
Read also
The AI Act and the Digital Omnibus: the new high-risk timeline · The Digital Omnibus and the GDPR: the EDPB and EDPS doubts
Author: Valentina Grazia Sapuppo
