The Digital Omnibus political agreement reached by the European Parliament and Council on 7 May 2026 postpones the EU AI Act's high-risk obligations to 2 December 2027 for standalone Annex III systems and 2 August 2028 for Annex I systems embedded in regulated products, and postpones the Article 50(2) provider watermarking duty to 2 December 2026, but leaves the deployer transparency obligations applicable from 2 August 2026 and leaves the GPAI obligations, the governance regime, the prohibited practices, and the AI literacy duty already in force, so an enterprise that reads the delay as a reason to pause its AI Act programme is misreading what still applies on and before 2 August 2026.

Anchored on the Council of the EU press release of 7 May 2026 announcing the provisional political agreement on the Digital Omnibus simplification package (Commission proposal 19 Nov 2025), and on the official EU AI Act application timeline (prohibited practices and AI literacy applicable 2 Feb 2025; GPAI obligations and governance applicable 2 Aug 2025; deployer transparency obligations under Article 50 applicable 2 Aug 2026). Revised high-risk dates (2 Dec 2027 Annex III; 2 Aug 2028 Annex I) and the watermarking postponement to 2 Dec 2026 are from the 7 May 2026 provisional compromise as reported by the Council press release and multiple law-firm analyses (White and Case, Hogan Lovells, Taylor Wessing, Dentons). Claim is scoped to what the agreement does and does not move, and to the deployer-side reading; it does not assert the simplification is good or bad policy. 90-day review cadence (26 Aug 2026) deliberately lands after the 2 Aug 2026 milestone so the review can verify what actually applied. Trigger conditions: (1) the provisional agreement fails formal adoption by Parliament and Council, or is amended in formal adoption such that the dates change, would move the claim toward Partial or require a correction; (2) the European Commission or AI Office issues implementing guidance changing the practical scope of the deployer transparency obligations before 2 Aug 2026; (3) a member-state competent authority publishes enforcement priorities for the 2 Aug 2026 deployer obligations that materially change the readiness calculus; (4) any further omnibus or amendment moves additional obligations. Siblings: /eu-ai-act-readiness-budget-high-risk-systems/ (the high-risk readiness budget this delay re-times), /eu-ai-act-article-50-transparency-disclosure/ (the transparency duty that does not move), OPS-080 (the small-business version of the same delay-versus-still-applies reading).