European Database for High-Risk AI Delayed Until at Least 2027

The database in which providers and certain public institutions must register high-risk artificial intelligence systems will not, according to the European Commission, be ready before the third quarter of 2027. In June, the expected launch date was still mid-2026. The delay affects one of the central elements of the regulation's information infrastructure: the public, customers and supervisory authorities are supposed to use the register to identify who operates a system and for what purpose. The situation is complicated by an inconsistent timetable. The political agreement on the Digital Omnibus package moved most duties for high-risk systems to December 2027 and those for systems embedded in regulated products to August 2028. However, according to the interpretation cited by Euractiv, the separate registration provision may not have been postponed in the same way. A legal duty could therefore arise before the technical tool needed to fulfil it exists. Daniel Leufer of Access Now describes the database as a crucial part of the whole regime. “It must be ready and operational when the obligations for high-risk systems begin to apply,” he said. Without the register, it becomes harder to compare suppliers, identify recurring problems and check whether public institutions use algorithms for their stated purpose. Citizens would also lose one of the few places where they can trace the use of a system. The delay is not a reason for companies to wait. Providers of systems used in recruitment, education, credit scoring, critical infrastructure or biometric processing already need to decide whether their product falls into the high-risk category. They must maintain technical documentation, record model changes, divide roles between provider and user, and prepare the information that will later be uploaded to the database. Reconstructing these records after the register opens would be costly and unreliable. A sensible interim step is an internal shadow register. It should contain the system's name, supplier, purpose, data used, responsible person, affected groups, test results, incidents and date of the latest change. Public institutions and large buyers can require the same set of information in procurement documents. This creates the basis for future registration and reduces dependence on a supplier's claim that its system does not fall into the stricter category. The delay also illustrates a broader problem in European regulation: legal deadlines may change faster than corporate projects. Companies should therefore not manage compliance around a single date in the calendar. They need to follow the final wording of amendments, implementing acts, Commission guidance and the actual availability of European information systems. The main risk is not the delay itself, but the false impression that postponing the register also removed the other obligations.

European Database for High-Risk AI Delayed Until at Least 2027

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