Any delay in the enforcement of the EU's AI Act should be conditional on the finalization of compliance tools, including the code of practice for general-purpose AI models, Poland's Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs has told MLex. Dariusz Standerski said pausing the implementation of rules for general-purpose AI models, possibly as part of an informal agreement with the European Commission, should be an option if the relevant code of practice is not ready in time. At the same time, he warned against pausing the enforcement of the AI Act without conditions.
Any delay in the enforcement of the European Union’s landmark AI Act should be conditional on the finalization of compliance tools, including the code of practice for general-purpose AI models, Poland's Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs has told MLex.The comments are the latest in the growing so-called stop the clock debate about the timeline for the implementation of the EU’s landmark rules for technology companies which aims to protect users from the risks of AI use.
Last week, Henna Virkkunen, the European Commissioner responsible for tech sovereignty, security, and demoracy, said at a council meeting of EU ministers that postponing parts of the AI Act shouldn’t be ruled out if the technical standards and administrative guidance aren’t ready by the time the next set of rules start to apply (see here).
“During the council and after the council, I've heard from member states that it's not about freezing the enforcement. It's about the enforcement under some conditions,” Standerski, the Polish deputy minister, told MLex in an interview.
The conditions should be that compliance tools, such as technical standards for high-risk AI systems and the code of practice for general-purpose AI models, are in place by the time the relevant legal requirements enter into force as planned, he said. Within the commission, discussions about a possible delay to the AI Act have so far focused only on the high-risk AI requirements, MLex understands.
“If we don’t have the code, how should we introduce general-purpose AI in our countries?” Standerski said.
He acknowledged that the timelines for suspending the application of the GPAI rules don’t align, since they take legal effect in August and the commission’s legislative proposal is expected in the final quarter of the year. A potential interim solution could be an informal agreement with the European Commission not to prosecute EU countries in the European Court of Justice for failing to implement the law after it has taken legal effect, he said.
The final version of the code of practice is currently expected to be published in early July, and it will then need to pass a so-called adequacy assessment by EU countries and the commission for it to be formally recognized as a compliance tool under the AI Act (see here). If any member states request modifications, the code might not be ready by the application deadline on Aug. 2.
Virkkunen seemed open to listening to member state concerns during last week’s ministerial discussion, he said, marking a welcome shift in the commission’s position on the matter.
— Delays with conditions —
However, any postponement in the enforcement of the AI Act could open the way for industry players to delay their work on developing the required technical standards for the law.
“That’s why we need to conduct long discussions on this matter. We have two extremes. There are those who say that, if we make the date of enforcement conditional, it will never happen. The other extreme says that, if we postpone the enforcement, for example, for six months, nothing will change and we will be in the same situation,” Standerski said.
The issue is expected to be discussed further at Poland’s digital summit in Gdańsk on June 17–18, a technical discussion in the council on June 24, and a European AI Board meeting on June 30.
Standerski added that he hoped the debate would continue when Denmark takes over the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of EU from Poland in the second half of the year.
— Coherent digital laws —
The Polish Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs also said the stop the clock debate should also be viewed as part of a broader effort to simplify and synchronize the EU’s legal framework.
“It’s not only about the date of enforcement. It’s mainly about how we implement it. If we implement the AI Act in 27 different ways, that will be the worst-case scenario,” he said.
To avoid such fragmentation, the Polish government is advocating for the creation of cross-border regulatory sandboxes, jointly managed by AI regulators from multiple member states, to foster a shared understanding of compliance.
Standerski said that all digital regulators were facing resource constraints, including the commission’s AI Office, which he said should receive more funding in the next EU budget.
“It’s not the time to go back to 2020, when we had no AI Act. It’s the time to make amendments and take the opportunity to build an even slightly more coherent system of digital laws, which is the target for the next five or 10 years,” he said.
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