Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 21 April 2026 the European Commission issued a conditional clearance under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR, Regulation 2022/2560), requiring the exclusion of CRRC (China's largest rolling-stock manufacturer) from the Lisbon Metro Violet Line procurement — the first-ever FSR procurement remedy ordering a Chinese supplier exclusion from a specific EU public contract. The Commission found that CRRC received foreign subsidies enabling it to submit an unduly advantageous tender, and as a condition of clearance mandated CRRC's removal from the tender. CRRC was replaced by PESA (Polish rail manufacturer) as the selected bidder. Unlike the 2024 Bulgaria/CRRC case (FSP.100147) where CRRC voluntarily withdrew before a formal decision, the Lisbon case produced the first binding FSR exclusion remedy, establishing mandatory supplier-removal as an available enforcement outcome in EU public procurement.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 21 entities and 17 individuals across three procurement networks supplying Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and its subordinate weapons producers. The networks sourced ballistic-missile guidance components (accelerometers, gyroscopes, MEMS) for the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group and Shahid Hemmat Space Group, dual-use radar/missile-guidance electronics routed through Hong Kong and China for Shiraz Electronics Industries, and helicopter parts — including a US-origin helicopter — routed through Germany, Türkiye, Portugal and Uruguay for Iran Helicopter Support and Renewal Company (PANHA). The action is Treasury's first nonproliferation-sanctions tranche following the 27 September 2025 UN Security Council "snapback" reimposing pre-JCPOA sanctions on Iran.

Portugal's Secretary of State for Energy (Jean Paulo Gil Barroca) declared public utility and constituted an administrative easement over 24 land parcels (~228 hectares) of private and communal land in the Barroso mining concession area (Boticas, Trás-os-Montes) in favour of Savannah Lithium, Lda. via Despacho n.º 7824/2025, published in the Diário da República 2.ª série n.º 131 on 10 July 2025. The easement, valid for one year from administrative possession, grants Savannah Lithium access rights to conduct geological surveys, geotechnical investigations, and preparatory exploratory works at the Mina do Barroso — the EU's largest known spodumene (hard-rock lithium) resource. The Barroso project was designated a Strategic Project under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) Regulation 2024/1252 in March 2025, making this despacho the first concrete member-state compulsory-easement instrument implementing CRMA Strategic Project status in Portugal.

On 25 March 2025 the European Commission adopted the first list of 47 Strategic Projects inside the EU under Article 7 of the Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252), followed on 4 June 2025 by 13 Strategic Projects located in third countries — 60 designations in total. The 47 EU projects span 13 Member States and 14 strategic raw materials, with an expected EUR 22.5bn capital-investment envelope; the 13 third-country projects require a further EUR 5.5bn. Designation triggers fast-track permitting (max 27 months for extraction, 15 months for processing/recycling), preferential access to EU/EIB/EBRD finance, and Member State priority status, operationalising the CRMA's 2030 benchmarks (≥10% extraction, ≥40% processing, ≥25% recycling, ≤65% single-country dependence).

Portugal's Council of Ministers adopted Resolution n.º 49/2024 on 26 March 2024, establishing the Sistema de Incentivos ao Investimento em Setores Estratégicos (Strategic Sectors Investment Incentive System) — a dedicated state-aid window anchored to the EU Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF, Commission Communication C(2023)1711) and routed through Portugal's Regime Contratual de Investimento (RCI, Decree-Law 191/2014). The scheme covers green-transition equipment manufacturing (batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, CCUS) and upstream critical raw materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper, rare earths, graphite, anode/cathode precursor chemistries), offering cumulative grant equivalents up to 35% of eligible investment for large enterprises and 45–55% for SMEs, Cohesion-Region operations, or strategic-priority categories. A hard 31 December 2025 approval-decision sunset tied to TCTF expiry drove a Q3–Q4 2025 project-decision rush. The scheme served as the primary domestic state-aid instrument underpinning Portugal's four EU CRMA-designated strategic projects (Savannah Barroso lithium, Lusorecursos Aguas Frias lithium, Lifthium Estarreja LiCO3/LiOH refinery, Bondalti Estarreja lithium-derivatives integration).

Portugal's Decreto-Lei n.º 138/2014, published in Diário da República 1.ª série N.º 177 of 15 September 2014, establishes Portugal's first horizontal FDI screening regime (Regime de Salvaguarda de Ativos Estratégicos Essenciais). It empowers the Council of Ministers, by reasoned resolution on proposal of the competent sectoral minister, to oppose — on an ex-officio basis — transactions resulting directly or indirectly in the acquisition of control by non-EU/non-EEA investors over strategic essential assets in the energy, transport, and communications sectors and over assets related to national defence and security. Transactions concluded against a Council of Ministers opposition decision are null and void.