News EU Parliament Digital Omnibus AI Act 2026

March 26, 2026 — European Parliament Adopts Position on Digital Omnibus AI Act Amendments

The European Parliament plenary adopted its negotiating position on proposed Digital Omnibus amendments to the EU AI Act on March 26, 2026, advancing to trilogue negotiations with the Council of the European Union (which adopted its own mandate on March 13, 2026) and the European Commission.

Key Amendments

The Parliament's position includes several significant changes to the Commission's original Omnibus proposal:

• Fixed application dates: Replaces the Commission's flexible backstop dates with fixed dates, eliminating regulatory uncertainty about when rules take effect. This aligns with the Council position.
• Ban on non-consensual AI-generated intimate imagery: Introduces a prohibition under Article 5 on AI systems generating realistic sexually explicit images or videos of identifiable individuals without consent. The Parliament's ban is broader than the Council's, which limited the prohibition to systems lacking safeguards. The measure also explicitly bans "nudifier apps."
• Shortened transparency grace period: Reduces the compliance period for Article 50(2) marking obligations for AI systems placed on the market before August 2, 2026 from six months (to February 2, 2027) to just three months (to November 2, 2026).
• Reinstated registration requirements: Retains EU database registration for self-assessed non-high-risk AI systems under Article 6(3), rejecting the Commission's proposed removal and aligning with the Council.
• Stricter data processing thresholds: Restores the "strict necessity" standard for processing special categories of personal data in bias detection, limited to high-risk systems with exceptional extensions requiring necessity, proportionality, and links to health, safety, fundamental rights, or discrimination.
• Annex I restructuring: Deletes Section A and moves New Legislative Framework legislation to Section B, altering the AI Act's interaction with sectoral product rules.
• AI Office enhancements: Strengthens supervision over general-purpose AI models with resourcing requirements, while preserving national authority competence through exceptions. The Parliament's position adds detailed GPAI/DSA integration provisions.

Alignment With Council Position

Parliament and Council show broad alignment on rolling back Commission simplifications, including fixed dates, registration requirements, data processing thresholds, non-consensual imagery bans, and AI Office oversight. Key distinctions include the Parliament's shorter transparency grace period, explicit AI Office resourcing mandates, and Annex I restructuring.

Timing

The amendments were fast-tracked due to time pressures before the AI Act's general application date of August 2, 2026. Trilogue negotiations are expected to proceed quickly given the broad alignment between Parliament and Council positions.

Significance

The Parliament's position represents a significant pushback against the Commission's simplification agenda, restoring many compliance obligations that the Omnibus proposal sought to streamline. The shortened transparency grace period and reinstated registration requirements will require companies to accelerate compliance timelines ahead of the August 2026 enforcement deadline. The ban on non-consensual AI-generated intimate imagery marks one of the most explicit legislative responses to deepfake technology to date.

See Also

• EU AI Act Implementation Milestones
• Legislation