In this section you will find information regarding the background that led to the IA Act, starting with the initial proposal of the European Commission, which forms the executive of the European Union, which was developed by the legislative bodies of the EU, the Council of the European Union (also known as the Council) and the European Parliament.
This section has therefore been divided into five sections according to the institutions or bodies responsible for each document, which are listed in chronological order. We begin with the European Commission, followed by the Council. Then we focus on the publications of each committee of the European Parliament. The fourth section contains the texts created by other institutions and bodies integrated in the European Union, and we end with the compilation of the negotiation process between the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, known as the trialogue.
A chronology has also been included to facilitate the reading and interpretation of the legal background accompanying the current Regulation, as well as the implementation deadlines since publication and entry into force and the specificities of specific articles.
Finally, there is an additional section summarising other dates relevant to the process of elaboration, discussion and implementation of the IA Act.
Legislative background
Texts adopted by:
| The European Commission | |
| 21.04.2021 – Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council to harmonise rules on artificial intelligence and amending certain EU legislation | |
| White Paper on Artificial Intelligence. A European view of excellence and trust (19.02.2020) | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0065 |
| The Regulation (21.04.2021) | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52021PC0206 |
| Annexes to the Regulation (21.04.2021) | https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Annexes.pdf |
| Commission Staff Working Document for Regulatory Impact Assessment (21.04.2021) | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52021SC0084 |
| Annexes to the working document (21.04.2021) | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:0694be88-a373-11eb-9585-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_2&format=PDF |
| Study to support the regulatory impact assessment (21.04.2021) | https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/55538b70-a638-11eb-9585-01aa75ed71a1 |
| Communication to the Commission of the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions (21.04.2021) | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=COM%3A2021%3A205%3AFIN |
| Annexes to the communication (21.04.2021) | https://www.kowi.de/Portaldata/2/Resources/fp/2021-COM-AI-Annexes.pdf |
| Initial impact assessment: proposal for a legal act of the European Parliament and of the Council (20.07.2021) | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=PI_COM:Ares(2020)3896535&rid=3 |
| Other EU institutions or advisory bodies | |
| European Data Protection Board (EDPB) (18.06.2021) | https://www.edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/our-documents/edpbedps-joint-opinion/edpb-edps-joint-opinion-52021-proposal_en |
| Economic and Social Committee (22.09.2021) | https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AIA-EESC-Opinion-22-Sept-21.pdf |
| Committee of the Regions (02.12.2021) | https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AIA-CoR-Opinion-2-Dec-21.pdf |
| European Central Bank (29.12.2021) | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52021AB0040 |
| https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AIA-ECB-Opinion-II-29-Dec-21.pdf | |
LL
| Dialogue between the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament | |
| Proposed text (20.06.2023) | https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/…/AI-Mandates-20-June-2023.pdf |
| Analysis of the text with a view to agreement (26.01.2024) | https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-5662-2024-INIT/en/pdf |
| Interim agreement resulting from the institutional negotiations (02.02.2024) | https://www.europarl.europa.eu/…/2024/02-13/1296003EN.pdf |
| European Parliament amendments to the Commission proposal (06.03.2024) | https://www.europarl.europa.eu/…/A-9-2023-0188-AM-808-808_EN.pdf |
| Corrections to the text (19.04.2024) | https://www.europarl.europa.eu/…/TA-9-2024-0138-FNL-COR01_EN.pdf |
Chronology
| 2021 | |
| 21 April | The European Commission publishes the proposal for a regulation on artificial intelligence in the European Union. |
| 20 July | The Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is organising a virtual conference to discuss AI regulation, ethics and fundamental rights. |
| 6 August | The public consultation period on the IA Act by the European Commission ends. The Commission received 304 proposals. You can consult them at this link. |
| The study analysing the use of biomedical techniques from an ethical and legal perspective commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs is published. | |
| 29 November | Because of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, the first compromise of the draft text of the IA Act is shared with important changes in the areas of social scoring, biometric recognition systems and high-risk practices. |
| 1 December | The Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committees of the European Parliament will jointly lead the negotiations on the IA Act. |
| 2022 | |
| 25 January | The European Parliament’s main committees, Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) held the first exchange of views on the proposed IA Act. |
| 2 February | The European Commission presented a new Standardisation Strategy proposing its approach to promote the values of a resilient, green and digital single market on a global scale. |
| 3 February | The French Presidency in the European Council circulates the text on articles 16 to 29 of the IA Act Proposal on the obligations of users and providers of high-risk systems, as well as the compromise on articles 40 to 52 on harmonising standards, conformity assessments and transparency obligations for certain IA systems. |
| 2 March | The associated committees on Legal Issues (JURI) and Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) publish their respective draft opinions in the IA Act. |
| 20 April | Members of the European Parliament who address the IA Act to the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) publish their respective draft opinions on the IA Act. |
| 13 May | The French Presidency in the European Council publishes the text of Article 4a on the regulation of general-purpose AI systems which are capable of performing a wide range of tasks (understanding images and speech, generating audio and video, detecting patterns, answering questions and translating texts). |
| 1 June | Deadline for political groups in the European Parliament to submit amendments to the IA Act. In total, thousands of amendments were tabled, which are briefly summarised in the following link. |
| 15 June | The French Presidency of the European Council publishes its last text before the change of presidency. |
| 17 June | The Czech Presidency at the European Council shares a discussion with the heads of state of the EU member states indicating their priorities in the IA Act. |
| 5 September | The Committee on Legal Questions (JURI) in the European Parliament publishes the draft of its respective opinions in the AI Act. |
| 28 September | The European Commission proposed specific harmonisation of domestic AI liability rules with the aim of complementing the AI Act by facilitating civil liability claims for damages. |
| 6 December | The Council of the EU adopts its position on the IA Act. |
| 2023 | |
| 14 June | The European Parliament adopts its negotiating position on the IA Act with 499 votes in favour, 28 votes against and 93 abstentions. |
| 9 December | The European Parliament and the EU Council adopt the provisional agreement on the IA Act. |
| 2024 | |
| 13 February | The European Parliament and the Council of the EU adopt the provisional agreement on the IA Act. The result of the vote was 71 in favour, 8 votes against and 7 abstentions in order to approve the outcome of the negotiations with the member states on the IA Act. |
| 21 February | The European Office for Artificial Intelligence was created within the European Commission under the Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content, and Technology to support the implementation of the AI Act, especially for general-purpose systems. |
| 21 May | The European Council formally adopts the EU’s AI law. |
| 2025 | |
| 4 February | The Commission adopts the Commission Guidelines on prohibited artificial intelligence (AI) practices as defined in Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act). These guidelines establish interpretation criteria for the AI Regulation provisions applicable to these systems. |
Deadlines for implementation
- 12 July 2024: Publication in the EU Official Journal of the IA Act.
- 1 August 2024: the Law enters into force 20 days after its publication. After that date, the development is carried out in accordance with Article 113.
- 2 February 2025: Chapters I and II (prohibitions on unacceptable risk AI) will apply.
- 2 May 2025: codes of practice need to be prepared in accordance with Article 56.
- 2 August 2025: Chapter III Section 4 (notifying authorities), Chapter V (AI general-purpose models), Chapter VII (governance), Chapter XII (confidentiality and penalties) and Article 78 (confidentiality) shall apply, with the exception of Article 101 (which refers to fines for persons providing AI general-purpose models).
- 2 August 2026: the remainder of the IA Act shall apply, with the exception of Article 6(1) concerning high-risk IA systems listed in Annex I of the IA Act.
- 2 August 2027: Article 6(1) and the corresponding obligations for high-risk systems included in Annex I of the IA Act shall apply.
Other relevant dates
- 24 January 2024: Commission decision to create an EU Office for Artificial Intelligence. Communication on boosting start-ups and innovation in trusted AI. The proposal to amend the EuroHPC (Regulation (EU) 2021/1173) in order to create AI factories.
- 16 April 2024: Special Report of the European Court of Auditors auditing the European Commission’s “Coordinated AI Plan” 2018 and 2021.
- 19 June 2024: The first high-level meeting of the next IA Board is held to adopt the rules of procedure and set up working groups for specific questions related to the implementation of the IA Act.
- 16 July 2024: EDPB Statement on the role of Data Protection Authorities under the IA Act.
- 22 July 2024: The first draft of the AI Pact is published.
- 30 July 2024: Call for expressions of interest to participate in the development of the first Code of Practice for general-purpose IA models. Launch of a multilateral consultation on such reliable models in the framework of the IA Act.
- 12 September 2024: Second meeting of the AI Board.
- October 2024: First meeting of the AI Committee.
- 2 November 2024: End of the deadline by which Member States had to notify the responsible authorities of the protection of fundamental rights (provided for in Article 77(2) of the IA Act).
- 02 May 2025: Finalisation of the drafting of the code of good practice for general-purpose AI models.
AI Liability Directive
On 28 September 2022, the Commission published the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adaptation of the rules on non-contractual civil liability for artificial intelligence (AI Liability Directive).
The proposal contained rules on the presumption of guilt of the persons obliged by the AI Act for the damages derived from their systems and obliged them to provide evidence related to the AI system, since this information is usually very difficult to access for the persons affected by its use.
However, on 11 February 2025, the European Commission announced the withdrawal of the proposal in its 2025 work programme.
