EDRi warns AI Omnibus adoption delays and weakens AI Act safeguards

In a summer blog post, European Digital Rights (EDRi) argues that the European Commission's Digital Omnibus, presented in November 2025 as simplification, is part of a wider deregulation agenda. EDRi notes that it is the seventh Omnibus file, says the Commission produced no proper impact assessment, and says the process leaned on selected reality checks and meetings that mostly heard from industry.

The post explains that the Digital Omnibus has two parts: the AI Omnibus, which amends the AI Act, and the Data Omnibus, which amends EU data-sharing rules, the GDPR and ePrivacy. According to EDRi, the AI Omnibus has now been adopted. It postpones central duties for high-risk systems, reduces transparency in some areas and complicates accountability. It also changes how industrial AI and machinery are treated, and amends provisions on AI literacy, rights oversight and sensitive data used for bias correction. EDRi says the AI Act was already a compromise and that reopening it before implementation sent a dangerous signal.

The Data Omnibus is still pending. EDRi reports that at the end of June 2026 a group of states led by Germany and Poland blocked Member States from adopting the Council's compromise text, and that the Irish Presidency is expected to continue the work. In Parliament, the LIBE and ITRE committees are preparing a position, with IMCO and JURI also involved, and Parliament has requested a substitute impact assessment.

EDRi warns that the Data Omnibus could narrow the definition of personal data, widen use of personal data for AI through legitimate interest, weaken protection of sensitive data and move device-access rules away from ePrivacy. It says cookie fatigue comes from the tracking economy, supports binding privacy signals, and urges separating real simplification from deregulation.