European AI Office
Issuer: European Commission: DG CNECT
Date: 24 JAN 2024
Status: IN FORCE in European Union, as of 29 JUL 2026
EU-level GPAI regulator: evaluate models, demand access, sanction; expanded remit under the Omnibus.
Established by Commission Decision C(2024)390 of 24 Jan 2024 and operational from mid-2024, the AI Office is the EU-level regulator for general-purpose AI models, it can evaluate models, demand information and access, and sanction. Governance architecture (in force 2 Aug 2025): AI Office + AI Board (member states) + Scientific Panel + Advisory Forum. Most non-GPAI enforcement runs through national market-surveillance authorities.
What it actually requires (4 provisions)
- Evaluates GPAI models, demands information/access, sanctions providers directly
- Sits inside DG CNECT; operational since mid-2024
- Flanked by the AI Board, Scientific Panel and Advisory Forum (2 Aug 2025)
- Supervisory remit expanded by the Digital Omnibus (2026/1744)
How its status moved
- DECISIONC(2024)390, 24 Jan 2024
- OPERATIONALMid-2024
- CURRENTGPAI enforcement powers activate 2 Aug 2026
Sources (1)
C(2024)390: Commission Decision establishing the European AI Office
The AI Office is the EU-level GPAI regulator: it can evaluate models, demand information and access, and sanction providers.
The rest of the European Union stack
5 more instruments in this jurisdiction, each with its own status, provisions and sources.
- EU AI Act: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689IN FORCEWorld's first horizontal AI law; four-tier risk pyramid; extraterritorial (Art. 2).
- Digital Omnibus on AI: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744IN FORCEDefers high-risk application to 2 Dec 2027 (Annex III) / 2 Aug 2028 (Annex I); adds nudifier/NCII + AI-CSAM bans (2 Dec 2026); SME simplifications; substance of high-risk duties unchanged.
- GPAI rules (Chapter V) + Code of PracticeIN FORCEDocumentation, copyright policy, training-data summary; systemic-risk tier >10²⁵ FLOPs; open-source carve-out; Meta declined to sign; enforcement powers activate 2 Aug 2026 (Implementing Reg. 2026/1755).
- Art. 50 transparency dutiesUPCOMINGChatbot disclosure; machine-readable synthetic-content marking; visible deepfake labels.
- GDPR Art. 22IN FORCERight not to be subject to purely automated decisions: the ancestor of the rights-based approach.
Where this sits in the wider picture
- The European Union regime dossier gives the doctrine this instrument belongs to, next to the other two jurisdictions.
- The Framework Explorer, filtered to EU lists every instrument in this jurisdiction in one filterable index.
- The governance simulator shows what these rules do to a real AI system, next to what the other two jurisdictions do to the same one.
- The timeline places this date beside what the other capitals were doing that month.
Knowing the instrument is step one. Complying with it is the job.
The programs teach the work that follows a rule like this one: classification calls, conformity assessment, filings, documentation, and the judgment to defend every decision.
VERIFIED 29 JUL 2026. Every fact on this page is drawn from the sources listed above and dated to the day it was checked. Study aid, not legal advice: the official texts are always authoritative.