The European Commission’s “Digital Omnibus” has entered its decisive phase in the Council of the EU, with negotiations reaching into the core of the General Data Protection Regulation, according to two internal Council documents published by the Vienna-based privacy organisation noyb and first reported by Politico. Both documents carry the marking “LIMITE”. At the centre is a new provision, labelled Article 88c in the Commission proposal and renumbered Article 88 bis in the Council text, setting out the legal basis for processing personal data “in the context of the development and operation” of AI systems and AI models. The Irish Presidency text (Council document 12535/26) states such processing may be carried out “for a legitimate interest of the controller”, resting on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, while retaining a balancing test and a reference obliging controllers to choose an appropriate lawful ground under Article 6. It also adds to Article 4 that information relating to a natural person is not necessarily personal data for every other person or entity merely because another entity can identify that natural person, and lets controllers refuse requests where a person “abuses the rights conferred by this regulation for purposes other than the protection of their data”. The German comments (Council document WK 11020/2026 ADD 4) go further, proposing that processing personal data for the training and technical operation of an AI system or AI model “shall be presumed as a legitimate interest”, deleting the qualifier “where