Government misses deadline to appoint artificial intelligence regulator

European Union (EU) countries had until 2 August to notify the European Commission of the national entity chosen to perform the role of market surveillance authority under the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Regulation. Weeks after the deadline, it is still unknown which entity has been designated by the Portuguese government, and the EU executive itself has not yet published the list of national authorities it had promised, postponing it until later.

The law regulating AI in the European bloc stipulates in Article 70 that “Member States shall notify the Commission of the identity of the notifying authorities and market surveillance authorities” and publish their contact details “by 2 August 2025”. The date coincided with the entry into force of new provisions of the regulation, such as the rules that apply to general-purpose AI models, an example of which is the popular ChatGPT platform.

However, it remains unclear which entity the Portuguese government has chosen to perform this function, or whether one has been chosen at all. ECO has been questioning the government on this matter through the Ministry of State Reform — which oversees AI in Portugal, as confirmed by an official source — but has not received a response. The Commission itself has also not responded to the question of whether the Portuguese government has already designated a supervisory authority.

On a page dedicated to the subject, the European Commission warns Member States that if countries do not designate an authority within the deadline, they may be subject to “formal infringement proceedings”, which could ultimately lead to financial penalties. It explains that the role of these national entities is to accept “complaints submitted by any natural or legal person who has reason to believe that there has been an infringement of the provisions” of the regulation, also known as the AI Act.

Government concentrates digital services at Anacom

For some time now, there has been speculation that the role of AI supervisory authority in Portugal could fall to Anacom, currently one of the main digital regulators in Portugal, if only because the communications regulator already has extensive powers under another important European law, the Digital Services Regulation.

In fact, on 31 July, at a Council of Ministers meeting held a few days before the deadline for appointing the AI Act regulator, the government decided to approve a bill to designate Anacom as the sole “competent authority for digital services”, concentrating all powers in its hands.

Given that there were already previous determinations involving other entities in the supervision of this regulation — such as the National Data Protection Commission (CNPD) and the Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC) — and that there was even a proposal to increase funding for these entities, which was never implemented, ECO understands that this Government’s decision took some people completely by surprise, frustrating expectations.

Furthermore, the European Commission itself should have published by 2 August 2025 the list of authorities designated by each country, which will serve as a single point of contact. This did not happen.

“The Commission is currently evaluating the notifications. In due course, we will publish the list of single points of contact, the coordinating supervisory authority in each Member State”, an official source in Brussels told ECO. When asked whether Portugal had already designated an entity, the Commission did not respond.