EU AI Act High-Risk Deadlines Extended, Annex III Moves to December 2027, Plenary Vote Imminent

Note to readers: A European Parliament plenary vote on these amendments is expected on March 26, 2026, one day after this brief’s publication. Verify the vote outcome at europarl.europa.eu before acting on the timelines below. This brief reflects the status as of March 25, 2026.

Previously covered: EU AI Act Moves From Law to Operation: Expert Working Groups Launch to Define Conformity Standards. This brief addresses the amendment process, specifically, the proposed deadline extensions and a new deepfake provision.

On March 18, 2026, members of the European Parliament’s relevant committees reached a preliminary political agreement on a package of amendments to the EU AI Act, what has been described as an “AI omnibus,” per IAPP reporting on the committee agreement. Preliminary means exactly that: this is a committee-level accord, not a Parliament-wide vote. The distinction matters for compliance planning.

According to IAPP, the preliminary agreement would push the compliance deadline for high-risk AI systems listed in Annex III to December 2, 2027. The agreement also reportedly extends the Annex I deadline to August 2, 2028, per IAPP. Both dates are single-source at this stage, IAPP is a credible specialist publication on EU AI policy, but the official European Parliament committee document has not been confirmed against these specific dates. Treat them as per-IAPP pending official confirmation.

For compliance teams that have been building toward the original deadlines, a meaningful extension, if confirmed, changes the calculus on implementation sprint timelines, vendor procurement cycles, and board reporting on AI Act readiness. It does not eliminate the work. Systems still need to meet Annex III and Annex I requirements. The extension buys time. It doesn’t buy exemptions.

The preliminary agreement is also reported to include a new ban on AI systems that generate nonconsensual explicit deepfakes, so-called “nudifier” systems, with an exception for systems with effective safety measures, according to IAPP. This proposed provision tracks with the nudifier ban conversation that has run alongside EU AI Act implementation discussions and connects to the UK’s separately reported consultation on digital replicas covered in today’s DSIT brief.

A full Parliament plenary vote is expected on March 26, 2026, according to Blavatnik School of Government policy analysts. Until that vote occurs and results are confirmed, the deadline extensions remain proposed, not adopted. Do not retire your existing compliance milestones on the basis of this brief alone.

What to watch: the EP plenary vote result on March 26; official publication of the committee’s amendment text through europarl.europa.eu; and any formal revision to the EU AI Act’s Annex implementation schedule in the Official Journal of the EU. The compliance deadline tracker on this page will be updated following plenary vote confirmation. For the broader EU AI Act operational context, see the prior brief on expert working groups and conformity standards.

The comparison table below reflects proposed changes per IAPP reporting. Original deadlines marked with an asterisk have not been independently verified by the Filter in this cycle, confirm against the official EU AI Act text before relying on them.

*Original deadlines unverified in this cycle. Confirm against official EU AI Act text before publishing or acting on this table.