This is an update to prior coverage. For the full background on what the EU AI Act Omnibus contains, what entered trilogue, and what the compliance deadline shift means, see “EU AI Act Omnibus Enters Trilogue: Compliance Deadlines Are Shifting, What Teams Need to Know Now.” What’s new is the timeline.
According to legal analysis from A&O Shearman, updated as of April 14, 2026, trilogue negotiations are targeting a political agreement by approximately April 28, 2026. A&O Shearman’s analysis indicates this target is driven by publication timeline requirements ahead of the August 2 high-risk deadline – specifically, the need to publish the final text in the Official Journal of the European Union with sufficient lead time for compliance teams to implement.
This sequencing has not been confirmed by official EU institutions. April 28 is a legal analysis prediction, not an announced EU Council or Parliament date. Treat it as a reported target, not a confirmed milestone.
Why the sequencing matters: a political agreement by April 28 would trigger a defined chain of subsequent steps, legal-linguistic review, formal adoption votes, Official Journal publication, before the August 2 high-risk compliance deadline becomes operative. If the April 28 target slips, pressure on the August 2 deadline increases. The gap between agreement and effective date is already tighter than compliance teams would prefer.
For teams managing EU AI Act readiness, the immediate practical implication is calendar compression. The period between a political agreement and a published final text is not a preparation window, it’s a confirmation window. The substantive compliance work needs to be underway before April 28, not after.
What to watch: Official EU Council or Parliament communications confirming or adjusting the trilogue timeline. If a political agreement is reached on or near April 28, expect rapid movement toward formal adoption. Watch also for any last-minute changes to the high-risk system classification criteria in the Omnibus text, those changes, if confirmed, affect which organizations face the August 2 deadline and on what terms.
TJS synthesis: Fourteen days to a reported political agreement target. The August 2 deadline isn’t moving. The window between where negotiations stand today and where compliance teams need to be in August is narrowing faster than the public calendar makes visible. If your EU AI Act readiness work is still in assessment mode, the April 28 milestone, confirmed or not, is the signal to move.