EC Won't Pause AI Act Deadlines
The EU AI Act will not be postponed, Thomas Regnier, a European Commission spokesperson, posted July 4 on LinkedIn. "Legal deadlines are legal deadlines," he said.
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The EC takes concerns raised by the AI community and industry "extremely seriously" and will address what it can address, the spokesperson for tech sovereignty, defense, space, research and innovation said.
Moreover, the EC is preparing a digital simplification omnibus package and considering the timing for implementation of the general-purpose AI code of practice, possibly at year's end, Regnier said. It's also implementing an AI Service Desk to give organizations guidance.
"But a legal text is a legal text," and it was adopted by the European Parliament and Council, he noted.
"Let's all pull in the same direction: making Europe an AI Continent," he wrote. That includes continuing to develop AI gigafactories, 76 applications for which have already been received from 16 EU countries, he noted.
The EC wants to provide everything industry needs to make Europe an AI leader, Regnier said: infrastructure, data, computing power, talent, "and, of course, clarity and legal certainty."
Swedish Prime Minister and Moderate Party Leader Ulf Kristersson was the first government head to call for a pause in implementing the AI law since its rules are confusing and are coming into force without common standards (see 2506300013).
In response, an EC spokesperson told us that the EC is working on a digital simplification omnibus and that, in that context, all options remained on the table at that point. Kristersson called for the pause in late June.