Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The Ecuadorian National Assembly approved on 26 February 2026 (vote 77-70, urgent-economic-matter procedure) the Ley Orgánica para el Fortalecimiento de los Sectores Estratégicos de Minería y Energía, the statutory complement to President Daniel Noboa's Decreto Ejecutivo 273 of 31 December 2025. The law was published in the Quinto Suplemento of Registro Oficial on 2 March 2026 with no presidential objection and entered into force the same day. It comprises 28 articles, two general provisions and one transitory provision. The mining title codifies the 3–8% sliding royalty scale and channels 60% of royalty receipts to social investment via decentralised governments (45% provincial / 35% municipal / 20% parochial) — the legislative anchor for the regime introduced by Decree 273. The energy title amends the Ley Orgánica del Servicio Público de Energía Eléctrica to recognise distributed generation, self-supply and autonomous energy districts, and establishes exception-route participation for foreign state-owned enterprises and popular/solidarity-economy organisations alongside private capital. A controversial Galápagos-adjacent provision permitting expedited mining/energy procedures has triggered domestic constitutional challenge.

President Daniel Noboa signed Executive Decree 273 on 31 December 2025 (effective 1 January 2026), the most significant overhaul of Ecuador's mining regulation since the 2009 Mining Code. The decree amends the Reglamento General a la Ley de Minería to (i) replace the fixed 3–8% royalty range with a price-indexed sliding scale tied to a trailing three-year LME reference price, (ii) require all mining projects to supply 100% of their electricity needs (no grid draw), (iii) tighten exploration-phase timelines and introduce automatic extinction of concessions where activities do not begin in time, (iv) modify royalty-deduction rules so gold/silver royalties are computed on gross revenue without deductions while small/medium operators of other metals can still deduct refining/transport/benefit costs, and (v) allocate 60% of mining royalties to social projects via decentralised governments (45% provincial, 35% municipal, 20% parochial). The decree was published in Registro Oficial Suplemento 195 of 31 December 2025 and is not retroactive.

Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy and Industry, in partnership with the European Commission Structural Reform Support Directorate and contractor Ernst & Young Bulgaria, launched development of the National Industrial Strategy for Manufacturing and Mining Industry Sectors 2025-2030 on 10 October 2024. The strategy covers Bulgaria's two most carbon- and energy-intensive economic sectors — manufacturing and extractive industries — and integrates EU Critical Raw Materials Regulation, Net Zero Industry Act, and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism provisions into a national strategic framework. Expected adoption by end of 2026, it will be Bulgaria's first comprehensive post-EU-CRMA sectoral industrial-policy framework for mining and manufacturing, and closes a structural gap in the country's industrial policy architecture.