Official Journal
Official Journal of the European Union: publication of record for EU law entering force.
The AI Act's amended employment-sector rules await their own Official Journal entry after Council sign-off on 29 June 2026, the same publication mechanism that started the Cloud and AI Development Act's clock on 15 July.
Last refreshed: 4 August 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
When does EU AI Act compliance begin, and what triggers that clock?
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The Official Journal of the European Union is the gazette of record for all EU legislation, regulations, directives and decisions. A text becomes binding across all 27 member states only once published in the OJ, on the date specified within it; that date, not the date of political adoption, is the legal anchor for transposition clocks, compliance deadlines and liability exposure across the Union. It is distinct from national gazettes such as the UK's London Gazette or Germany's Bundesgesetzblatt, which cover only domestic law.
The mechanism is visible across current EU tech-policy files: the Cloud and AI Development Act reached the OJ on 15 July 2026 and entered into force on 4 August with duties phased in from February 2028 to August 2029, a clean example of how OJ publication, rather than the underlying political deal, is what starts a compliance clock running.
A negotiated text is not yet law
The Digital Omnibus file shows the Official Journal mechanism operating on a slower gear than CADA's. Council sign-off on the file landed on 29 June 2026, but that was only the penultimate step: the amended AI Act text still awaits its own OJ entry before any of its revised employment-sector compliance dates start running in law rather than in press coverage.
Until that publication lands, firms planning around the file are working from a negotiated text, not a binding one, the same gap that separates political adoption from legal force across every EU compliance clock the Journal starts.