months for transparency and governance

The deal agreed today also allows for a phased entry into force after the law is adopted — with six months allowed until rules on prohibited use cases kick in; 12 months for transparency and governance requirements; and 24 months for all other requirements. So the full force of the EU’s AI Act may not be felt until 2026.

Carme Artigas, Spain’s secretary of state for digital and AI issues, who led the Council’s negotiations on the file as the country has held the rotating Council presidency since the summer, hailed the agreement on the heavily contested file as “the biggest milestone in the history of digital information in Europe”; both for the bloc’s single digital market — but also, she suggested, “for the world”.