The Executive Vice-president of the European Commission responsible for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, has said she is “very confident” that the EU Council and Parliament will be able to reach an agreement at the trilogue meeting scheduled for Wednesday 6 May on what is known as the ‘AI omnibus’ package presented by the Commission in November 2025 to simplify the rules on artificial intelligence after the second trilogue on 28 March failed to reach a compromise (see EUROPE 13855/5).
“I am very confident that we will find a solution tomorrow”, said Ms Virkkunen at a press conference on Tuesday 5 May. She stressed that simplifying European rules on AI is “very important” for innovation and investment in this field within the EU, reiterating the need to take account of both the opportunities and risks associated with AI.
“It is important that we now find a good formulation and a good text, and I note that the two co-legislators are very committed to working together to find a solution”, she added.
“The main issue to be resolved in the trilogue concerns the transfer of Section A to Section B of Annex I, which would exempt certain sectors from the rules applicable to high-risk systems under the AI Act”, said a European source interviewed by Agence Europe.
The European Parliament has proposed an amendment to move all the legislation listed in Section A of Annex I (of the AI Act) to Section B. In practice, this would mean that the AI Act would no longer apply directly to AI systems embedded in products covered by sector-specific legislation. This proposal is opposed by several countries, including Spain, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary.
“We recommend that industrial regulation be moved to the Annex, but that the rest remain in Section A”, said Markus Richter, German State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and State Modernisation, at the informal meeting of Telecommunications Ministers on 30 April in Cyprus, stressing the need to reach “a good compromise” between reducing bureaucracy and ensuring clarity in the regulatory framework.
Spain’s Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, added: “Spain is in favour of simplification, but not deregulation. We do not want to go back on the AI Act”.
According to Agence Europe, a number of flexibilities have been discussed at a technical level in recent weeks, including the possibility of limiting the application of the AI Act where sectoral legislation imposes requirements ensuring an equivalent or high level of protection, or providing further guidance on how to combine the procedures under the AI Act and those under sectoral law in order to avoid duplication. Other avenues include reducing the number of AI systems in products classified as high risk, and legislative changes concerning the application of the AI Act to AI systems embedded in products.
In the absence of a global agreement on the ‘AI omnibus’, the rules on high-risk systems set out in theAI Act will effectively come into force on 2 August, a deadline deemed insufficient to guarantee the availability of the necessary standards.
Other issues remain unresolved, including deadlines for ‘regulatory sandboxes’, the powers of the AI Office and new bans under Article 5. However, on these points, a European source interviewed by Agence Europe indicated that “the positions of the European Parliament and the EU Council are not that far apart”. This includes a new ban on sexual and intimate content, as well as material involving the sexual abuse of minors, following the Grok deepfakes scandal involving millions of sexualised images of women and minors circulated without consent.
The ambassadors of the EU Member States will meet this Wednesday to prepare for the trilogue. The European Parliament’s co-rapporteurs, Arba Kokalari (EPP, Swedish) and Michael McNamara (Renew Europe, Irish), will also meet the shadow rapporteurs from all the political groups. Henna Virkkunen will lead the Commission delegation at the trilogue. (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)