Agreement reached: simpler AI rules and stronger safeguards

In the early morning hours, the European Parliament and EU member states have reached an agreement to postpone and simplify the EU’s new rules on Artificial Intelligence (AI), giving companies more time to prepare and reducing overlapping obligations.

“With this agreement, we show that politics can move just as quickly as technology. We now make the AI rules more workable in practice, remove overlaps and pause the high-risk requirements. For the EPP Group, the biggest priority has been to give companies more time to comply with the rules and to cut red tape. In order for Europe to become an AI continent, we need to promote innovation, support startups and scaleups and make it easier to build AI in Europe”, said Arba Kokalari MEP, who negotiated the law on behalf of Parliament's Committee on Internal Market.

"Our goal is to unlock Europe’s potential in artificial intelligence by freeing it from bureaucracy. Existing legal uncertainties have now been resolved, and by introducing a regulatory pause we are giving companies more time to adapt to the new rules. Beyond that, we must continue to keep bureaucracy and costs for businesses as low as possible by generally avoiding any additional requirements for AI in sector-specific legislation, as this would otherwise create duplicative structures," emphasised Axel Voss MEP, the EPP Group’s negotiator in the Civil Liberties Committee.

"Another important step is the ban on so-called nudifier apps, to not open the door to serious societal harms. In doing so, we have been careful not to regulate technology as such, but rather its harmful applications," Voss added.

After today’s agreement, the law still needs formal approval of both the European Parliament and EU Member States. The EPP Group aims for adoption before August 2026.