Pipeline alert: CADA proposal imminent — Q1 2026  ·  AI Act full enforcement: August 2026  ·  All dates sourced from EUR-Lex
EU regulatory intelligence

EU regulation,
made readable.

ComplianceLayer monitors the EU legislative pipeline — Commission Work Programmes, EUR-Lex proposals, Parliament legislative train — and translates what's coming into plain language, before it hits the press. No legal advice. No noise. Just what your business needs to know, early.

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↓ Download the free Q1 2026 Deadline Tracker
Regulations tracked
12
Self-assessment tools
15+
Primary sources only
EUR‑Lex
Free resource

The EU Compliance Deadline Tracker — Q1 2026 Edition

12 regulations. Enforcement dates. Penalty tiers. Who it affects. The first action your team should take — all in one scannable document, verified against EUR-Lex and the Commission Work Programme.

12 regulations tracked — from AI Act enforcement to CADA, FIDA, EHDS, CRA, and more
Penalty tiers included — maximum fine thresholds for every regulation in scope
First action per regulation — the one concrete step compliance teams should take now
Primary sources only — every date verified against EUR-Lex, Parliament legislative train, and Commission Work Programmes
Updated quarterly — Q1 2026 edition. Next update: Q2 2026
📄 PDF · Landscape · Free 🔒 No legal advice 📅 Q1 2026 Edition
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EU Compliance Deadline Tracker

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Regulation Status Key date
EU AI Act Enforcement Aug 2026
CADA Imminent Q1 2026
FIDA Trilogue H1 2026
EHDS In force Jan 2026→
Cyber Resilience Act Adopted Dec 2027
Digital Fairness Act Preparation Q4 2026
+ 7 more regulations ··· ···

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Regulation Radar

What's in the pipeline

Every entry sourced from EUR-Lex, the Commission Work Programme, or the European Parliament legislative train.

Regulation
Status
Key date
Who it affects
Tool
EU AI Act Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
Enforcement
Aug 2026
Any business developing, deploying, or using AI systems in EU markets
Cloud & AI Development Act CADA — Commission proposal imminent
Proposal imminent
Q1 2026
Cloud service providers, AI developers, and enterprises running AI workloads in the EU
Financial Data Access Regulation FIDA — Regulation on open finance
Trilogue
Adoption H1 2026
Banks, insurers, pension funds, and any firm handling financial customer data
European Health Data Space EHDS — Regulation (EU) 2025/327
In force
Jan 2026 → 2027
Healthcare providers, health app developers, medical device manufacturers
Digital Fairness Act Successor to UCPD — dark patterns focus
Preparation
Q4 2026
Any business operating a consumer-facing digital product or service in the EU
ESPR / Digital Product Passport Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation
Implementation
2027
Manufacturers, importers, and retailers selling physical products in the EU
Cyber Resilience Act Regulation (EU) 2024/2847
Adopted
Dec 2027
Manufacturers and sellers of products with digital elements — hardware and software
28th Regime / EU Inc European corporate framework proposal
Parliament vote
Q1 2026
Startups and SMBs seeking a pan-European corporate structure
Digital Networks Act Infrastructure connectivity regulation
Delayed
Early 2026
Telecoms operators, ISPs, and large digital infrastructure providers
EU Quantum Act Quantum technologies framework
Proposal
Q2 2026
Quantum technology developers, researchers, and national security-adjacent industries
Advanced Materials Act Strategic materials regulation
Proposal
Q4 2026
Materials manufacturers, defence supply chains, and battery/semiconductor sectors
European Product Act Product safety and liability modernisation
Proposal
Q3 2026
All manufacturers and importers placing products on the EU single market
Our approach

Intelligence before it hits the press

Three things that separate us from every other compliance newsletter and legal blog.

📌

Primary sources only

Every piece of intelligence is traced directly to EUR-Lex, the Commission Work Programme, or the European Parliament's legislative train. No secondhand summaries. No trade press rewrites. If we can't cite the primary source, we don't publish it.

📡

Pipeline intelligence

We cover proposals weeks or months before they appear in trade press, monitoring Commission Work Programmes, EUR-Lex filings, and Parliament schedules as they are published — not after they are picked up by legal media.

🔎

Plain language, always

Written for compliance teams, in-house legal, and business owners — not lawyers billing by the hour. Every explainer answers: what is this, who does it affect, when does it matter, and what should we be doing about it now.

Latest intelligence

What we're watching now

The three most significant EU regulatory developments of the current briefing cycle.

AI Act February 2026

General-purpose AI model obligations enter force — are you in scope?

Article 51 thresholds for GPAI models with systemic risk now apply. Companies training or fine-tuning large models need to assess whether they cross the 10²⁵ FLOP threshold.

EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 51
CADA February 2026

Commission Cloud & AI Development Act proposal: what the latest drafts signal

Internal Commission documents and the Digital Decade progress report suggest CADA will include mandatory conformity assessments for high-autonomy AI systems and cloud-native sovereign data obligations.

Commission Work Programme 2026 — DG CONNECT
FIDA January 2026

FIDA trilogue enters final stage — financial institutions should prepare now

Council and Parliament negotiators have reached provisional agreement on data access permissions. Banks have an 18-month implementation window from final adoption — time that will pass quickly.

European Parliament — ECON Committee, January 2026
Free tools

Self-assess your compliance exposure

Every tool below is a free self-assessment landing page built and maintained by ComplianceLayer. Primary sources cited on every page.

AI regulation

AI Risk Check

EU AI Act

Classify your AI systems by risk tier, identify prohibited uses, and map your obligations under the EU AI Act.

airiskcheck.eu

AI Risicocheck (NL)

EU AI Act

Nederlandstalige risicobeoordeling voor de EU AI Act — risicoklassen, verboden toepassingen en verplichtingen.

airisicocheck.nl

Agent Audit

EU AI Act

Compliance audit for agentic AI systems — autonomy levels, human oversight requirements, and liability mapping.

agentaudit.eu

Guardian Agent

EU AI Act

Governance and oversight assessment for autonomous AI agents — human control requirements under the EU AI Act.

guardianagent.eu

Shadow Agent

EU AI Act

Detect undisclosed or shadow AI deployments within your organisation and assess transparency obligations.

shadowagent.eu
Financial data

FIDA Ready

FIDA

Check whether your financial institution is in scope of FIDA and what open finance data access obligations apply.

fidaready.eu
Health data

EHDS Ready

EHDS

European Health Data Space readiness check — data obligations for healthcare providers and health tech platforms.

ehdsready.eu
Product & supply chain

CADA Compliance

CADA

Readiness assessment for the Cloud & AI Development Act — cloud usage, AI workloads, and sovereignty requirements.

cadacompliance.com

Ecodesign Check

ESPR

Assess your product obligations under ESPR and the Digital Product Passport framework — phased 2027 requirements.

ecodesigncheck.eu

EUDR Check

EUDR

Assess your supply chain exposure under the EU Deforestation Regulation — due diligence obligations and affected commodities.

eudrcheck.eu
Consumer & digital

Dark Pattern Audit

Digital Fairness Act

Identify dark patterns on your digital products that will be prohibited under the incoming Digital Fairness Act.

darkpatternaudit.com

Digital Fairness Audit

Digital Fairness Act

Check your consumer-facing digital service against the Digital Fairness Act's proposed obligations and scope.

digitalfairnessaudit.com
Weekly briefing

The compliance briefing
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Published every week. Every item sourced from EUR-Lex, Commission press releases, or Parliament schedules. No forwarded trade press. No manufactured urgency.

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