Article by Thiago Moraes: “Since the adoption of the EU AI Act, which requires every EU Member State to establish at least one AI regulatory sandbox, such initiatives have been expanding across the EU and the wider European Economic Area (EEA). But how far have these initiatives progressed, and what can we learn from what has been made public so far? Here is a snapshot of the landscape as of October 2026.
The findings offer a snapshot of an evolving landscape. By the date of analysis, publicly available information pointed to completed AI Act’s sandbox pilots in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. The Spanish initiative stands out as a pioneer, with published statistics and reports and practical guidelines to support the AI Act implementation. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had launched pilots, while Sweden, Liechtenstein and Norway had publicly announced sandbox coordinators, but the reviewed information confirmed no sandbox pilots.
Table 1 summarises the findings across all 27 EU Member States and the three non-EU EEA countries. The four categories reflect the stage of development based on public available information at the time of the research…(More)”.
Table 1. Publicly documented state of play of AI Act regulatory sandboxes in the EU and EEA (October 2026)
| Status identified in public sources | Countries | Number |
| Pilot completed | Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Spain | 4 |
| Pilot launched | Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania | 3 |
| No sandbox pilot publicly announced yet; sandbox coordinator(s) appointed | Sweden, Liechtenstein (EEA), Norway (EEA) | 3 |
| No sandbox pilot or sandbox coordinator publicly announced | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Iceland (EEA) | 20 |
| Total | 27 EU Member States + 3 non-EU EEA countries | 30 |
Note: Data compiled from official public sources as of October 2026.
