The AI Omnibus Enters Its Final Four Weeks — And a Deal by April 28 Could Change Everything

Negotiations Are Already Under Way

Most coverage of the AI Omnibus has focused on the Parliament vote of March 26 — the 569 to 45 majority that formally adopted MEPs' negotiating position. What got less attention: trilogue started the same day. According to reporting from MLex journalist Luca Bertuzzi, the three EU institutions held an initial political "handshake" trilogue on the evening of March 26, with technical working sessions beginning the very next morning.^[1]

The target date for a final political agreement: April 28, 2026. The Cypriot Council Presidency, which is coordinating member states' side of the negotiations, is aiming to have an agreed text by May at the latest. Both sources put a deal as possible before the end of April.

That's four weeks from today. If it holds, businesses waiting for clarity on the AI Omnibus will have it three months before the August 2, 2026 deadline. That is genuinely more time than most compliance professionals expected.

Why the Timeline Moved So Fast

Normally, EU trilogue negotiations take months. The AI Omnibus is moving much faster for a specific reason: both the Council and Parliament already agree on the core elements. Both institutions support the December 2, 2027 deadline for high-risk AI (Annex III) and the August 2, 2028 deadline for AI embedded in regulated products. Both support the nudifier app ban. Both support extending SME compliance benefits to mid-cap companies. There's no fundamental disagreement on substance — just technical alignment to work through.^[2]

The main open items are procedural details: the exact trigger conditions for compliance deadlines, how the watermarking timeline interacts with the Commission's standard-setting process, and some nuances around which AI systems qualify for simplified registration. These are not dealbreakers.

What a Deal Before May Would Mean in Practice

If a political agreement is reached on April 28, the amended AI Act text would likely be formally published in the EU Official Journal in May or June 2026. That would give businesses approximately two months of certainty before August 2 — enough time to adjust compliance plans based on what's actually law, rather than preparing contingencies for both scenarios.

For companies working on high-risk AI conformity assessments — AI in hiring, credit scoring, education, law enforcement — a confirmed December 2027 deadline means you can pace your documentation work accordingly. You don't have to rush a conformity assessment in six weeks. You have 20 months.

For companies focused on transparency compliance — chatbot disclosures, AI content labelling — nothing changes. Those obligations still land August 2, 2026. They are not part of the AI Omnibus amendments at all. The Omnibus doesn't touch Article 50. If you've been waiting for the Omnibus outcome before acting on transparency, stop waiting. Do it now.

For companies uncertain whether they fall under the SME or mid-cap definitions — a deal will also confirm whether the expanded SME support provisions (which Parliament proposes to extend up to 750 employees and 150 million euros in turnover) make it through. This matters for simplified documentation requirements and regulatory sandbox access.

What to Watch Between Now and April 28

Three open questions will be resolved in the next four weeks:

• The watermarking deadline. Parliament wants November 2, 2026; the Commission proposed February 2027; the Council sits between them. The final date for AI-generated content watermarking will be agreed in trilogue. If you publish AI-generated images, video, or audio at scale, this date matters to you.
• Non-high-risk AI registration. The Council and Parliament both want to reinstate a simplified registration obligation for AI systems that are self-assessed as not high-risk. The Commission's original proposal removed this requirement entirely. If reinstated, more companies will need to register their AI systems in the EU database — even if their tools are minimal risk. The final version will clarify who this applies to.^[3]
• The SME threshold. Classic SME (under 250 employees) or expanded to small mid-cap (under 750)? The final number will determine which companies qualify for lighter compliance obligations.

What to Do Right Now

The honest advice for SMEs this week:

• Handle transparency now. Chatbot disclosures and AI content labelling are August 2026, confirmed, not subject to the Omnibus. A one-line AI disclosure on your chatbot takes five minutes. Do it this week.
• Keep your AI inventory current. Knowing what you are using and how you are using it is the foundation for everything else — and it's useful regardless of which specific deadline applies.
• Watch April 28. If a deal lands on schedule, you'll have clarity to make definitive compliance decisions before June. If negotiations slip, August 2026 remains the fallback. Either way, you'll know where you stand before the summer.

Four weeks is a short negotiation by EU standards. The institutions have done the hard work of agreeing their positions. The question now is whether they can close the gap in time. Given what is at stake — providing European businesses with a workable compliance framework before August — the incentive to move quickly is real.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.