The Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council is hoping to make progress as quickly as possible on the ‘simplification’ package of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, with the aim of obtaining a negotiating mandate by March or April, according to several sources. It is already working on the technical aspects.
In a note dated Friday 9 January, which Agence Europe has been able to consult and which is intended for the Antici Group meeting on simplification, the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council opens the discussion on several technical questions to pave the way for negotiations which promise to be arduous.
For example, the Presidency is asking Member States whether they agree with the proposal to abolish the registration requirement for certain specific categories of high-risk AI systems, in accordance with Article 6(3) of the text.
The same applies to the much-criticised new Article 4a, which creates a legal basis allowing suppliers and deployers of high-risk AI systems or models to process special categories of personal data on an exceptional basis.
The Presidency also raises the issue of guarantees to ensure that suppliers properly apply the obligations relating to high-risk systems, the extended powers given to the AI Office to ensure compliance by AI suppliers, and the 6-month grace period on transparency obligations granted to certain artificial intelligence models that generate images or videos.
With this deadline, tools placed on the market before August 2026 would have until December 2026 to comply with the obligations of the Act. This is one way of ensuring that deadlines are met before the final publication of the code of best practice on the transparency of content generated by artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 13775/22).
The Cyprus Presidency’s desire to bring forward work on the AI simplification package reflects the need to adopt the Act before the official entry into force of the obligations for high-risk AI systems, originally scheduled for August 2026. The new text provides for an extended period, until December 2027 (see EUROPE 13755/3). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)