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The European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1373 on June 22, 2026, imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) originating from China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. The regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on June 24, 2026. BDO is a chemical intermediate used in engineering plastics (polyurethane, PBT), solvents, and battery electrolyte solvents (gamma-butyrolactone derivative). China is the dominant global BDO producer and the primary source of injurious dumped imports into the EU. The regulation also definitively collects provisional duties previously imposed under Regulation (EU) 2026/270.

The European Commission approved Germany's €3.8 billion industrial electricity price relief scheme (Industriestrompreis, State Aid Case SA.120495) on 16 April 2026 under Section 5 of the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), covering the period 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028. The scheme compensates companies in 91 electricity- and trade-intensive sectors for electricity costs above a reference wholesale price floor, subject to a binding conditionality requiring reinvestment of at least 50% of aid in decarbonisation assets within 48 months. The Commission approved the German scheme as part of a coordinated three-Member-State decision also covering parallel Bulgarian and Slovenian electricity price relief schemes, with the combined package totalling approximately €4.22 billion. This is the largest individual CISAF disbursement approved to date, at 11.4× the scale of the parallel Bulgaria SA.120414 scheme (€334m), and establishes the Section-5 upper-bound precedent for EU energy-intensive-industry relief.

The European Commission approved Slovenia's €90 million industrial electricity price relief scheme (State Aid Case SA.120965) on 16 April 2026 under Section 5 of the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), covering the period 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028. The scheme compensates Slovenian energy-intensive companies for electricity costs above a reference wholesale price floor of €50/MWh, with payouts made twice yearly based on expected consumption, subject to a requirement that at least 50% of aid received be reinvested in decarbonisation or energy-efficiency assets. The approval was issued as part of a coordinated three-Member-State Commission decision (IP/26/815) covering parallel schemes in Bulgaria (SA.120414, €334m) and Germany (SA.120495, €3.8bn), with total package value of approximately €4.22 billion.

The European Commission approved Bulgaria's Electricity Price Relief Scheme (State Aid Case SA.120414) under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), authorising €334 million for energy-intensive industries over a three-year corridor from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. Aid is delivered via a reduction on beneficiaries' monthly electricity bills through their suppliers, subject to a minimum price floor of €50/MWh. This is the first EU member-state scheme approved under the CISAF framework, establishing the precedential template for subsequent CISAF approvals across the EU industrial base.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/801 on 9 April 2026, imposing provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of terephthalic acid (PTA, purity ≥99.5% by weight, CAS 100-21-0, CN code ex 2917 36 00 / TARIC 2917 36 00 11) originating in the Republic of Korea and Mexico, published in the OJ on 10 April 2026 and entering into force the following day. Duty rates are exporter-specific: Korean producers face 6.2% (Samnam Petrochemical, Hanwha Impact) to 13.7% (all other), with Taekwang Industrial Co. found not to be dumping (0%); all Mexican exporting producers face a flat 25.7%. The investigation was opened 13 August 2025 following a complaint by EU producer Ineos Aromatics.

On 1 May 2026 the trade pillar of the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (the "Interim Trade Agreement", iTA) entered provisional application between the European Union and the four Mercosur states — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — following its publication in the EU Official Journal on 27 February 2026 alongside the broader EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (EMPA). The iTA covers goods (eliminating duties on more than 90% of bilateral trade over a transition period including immediate cuts on cars, pharmaceuticals, wine and olive oil), services, government procurement at federal and state level, intellectual property (344 EU geographical indications protected), SPS/TBT disciplines, and a sustainability chapter. Mercosur receives tariff-rate quotas on agri-food exports (beef, poultry, sugar, ethanol, honey). Provisional application proceeds pending full ratification of EMPA by the Council, European Parliament and all EU national parliaments and a pending CJEU opinion; only the trade pillar applies provisionally.

On 27 January 2026 the European Union and India announced the conclusion of negotiations on a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement at the EU-India summit hosted at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, attended by PM Narendra Modi, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President António Costa. The deal — described by both leaders as the "mother of all deals" — covers ~25% of world GDP and ~2 billion people. The EU eliminates duties on 91% of tariff lines (covering 99.3% of bilateral trade by value); India eliminates duties on 86% of lines (covering 96.6% by value). Headline cuts include Indian tariffs on EU wines (150% → 75% at entry into force, falling to 20%), olive oil (45% → 0% over five years) and processed agri-food (up to 50% eliminated); EU tariffs are reduced/eliminated on Indian textiles, leather/footwear, gems and jewelry, marine products, tea, coffee, spices and certain agricultural and steel products. The agreement still requires Council adoption, European Parliament consent and approval by India's Union Council of Ministers; entry into force is expected in early 2027. Companion instruments concluded at the same summit include an EU-India Security and Defence Partnership and a Mobility and Migration Agreement.

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2614, adopted 12 December 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 22 December 2025, amends Regulation (EU) 2021/2283 and issues a wholesale replacement of the EU's autonomous import tariff-rate quota (ATQ) list, superseding the prior version dated December 2013 and its last update in June 2025. It applies from 1 January 2026 and grants duty-free or reduced-duty access, within fixed volume ceilings, for a broad set of agricultural and industrial inputs including basic organic chemicals, tanning/dyeing extracts, and fertilizer/pesticide inputs not produced in sufficient quantity within the Union. Global Trade Alert logs it as a "Red" (trade-liberalising but discriminatory-in-effect) intervention because the quota volumes are finite even though the duty treatment is erga omnes.

The European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation on 19 December 2025 (Case AD747, notice published in OJ C/2025/6744) into imports of sodium benzoate (CN code ex 2916 31 00, CUS 0023120-9, CAS 532-32-1) originating in China, following a complaint from Lanxess Chemical B.V. filed on 10 November 2025. The Commission first made imports subject to customs registration via Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/366 of 19 February 2026. On 27 July 2026 the Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1854, published 28 July 2026, imposing provisional antidumping duties ranging from 57.6% to 116.4% by exporter. The measure remains provisional pending the investigation's final outcome.

The European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation on 19 December 2025 (Case AD748, notice published in OJ C/2025/6741) into imports of benzyl alcohol (CN code 2906 21 00, CAS 100-51-6) originating in China, following a complaint from EU producers LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, LANXESS Chemical B.V. and Vynova Advanced Organics Maastricht B.V. The Commission first made imports subject to customs registration via Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/362 of 17 February 2026, preserving the option to apply duties retroactively. On 28-29 July 2026 the Commission published a provisional antidumping duty on Chinese benzyl alcohol, reported by trade press to be in the 52.6%-71.2% range pending independent confirmation of the exact implementing regulation and per-exporter rates. The measure remains provisional pending the investigation's final outcome, expected within the statutory deadline.

The European Commission approved on 15 December 2025 a EUR 408 million Spanish state aid scheme (SA.119880) under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), to support decarbonisation of manufacturing industry. The scheme funds direct grants — capped at EUR 200 million per company or project — for investments in electrification, switching to renewable or low-carbon hydrogen, waste heat recovery, and carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) across a wide range of sectors including chemicals, ceramics, paper and metallurgy. Aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to enterprises of all sizes, inside and outside the EU Emissions Trading System, and cannot finance increases in production capacity; Spain expects the scheme to deliver annual emissions savings of around 1.6 megatonnes of CO2, with beneficiary projects required to become operational within 60 months of the aid grant.

The European Investment Bank agreed to lend up to EUR 300 million to German specialty-chemicals group ALTANA to finance research and development of lower-emission, lower-VOC and critical-substance-free coatings, adhesives, additives and effect pigments over 2025-2028. The facility is split into two tranches (EUR 100 million available from December 2025, EUR 200 million to follow in Q1 2026) and is delivered under the EIB's TechEU initiative. EIB framed the loan around strengthening European industrial competitiveness and keeping German and European specialty-chemicals producers at the technological frontier.

Iberdrola Clientes' Project NOON — a 120 MW electrolysis renewable-hydrogen plant in Spain targeting 161,000 tonnes of RFNBO hydrogen production over its first 10 years — was awarded a EUR 135.5 million (USD 140.9 million) grant under the European Commission's Innovation Fund second domestic hydrogen auction (IF24). Iberdrola announced the award on 2 December 2025; the formal Grant Agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) was signed on 20 January 2026 as part of a batch of six IF24 projects (Spain, Finland, Norway) completing grant preparation. NOON is one of the eight Spain-based projects selected in the IF24 main lot.

On 10 November 2025 the European Commission conditionally approved, under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2022/2560), the c. €14.7bn acquisition of German polymer and polyurethane producer Covestro AG by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The Phase II investigation identified foreign-subsidy distortions including an unlimited UAE State guarantee covering ADNOC and a committed capital increase by ADNOC's state-backed parent into Covestro. To clear the transaction, ADNOC committed to remove the State guarantee, Covestro committed to maintain existing R&D cooperation agreements with EU competitors, and Covestro committed to license its present and future sustainability-related patents (c. 200 patents) to qualifying EU market participants on pre-established transparent terms for ten years. This is the second-ever FSR Phase II conditional clearance (after the September 2024 e&/PPF Telecom decision) and the first FSR remedy package to deploy sustainability-IP licensing as a structural commitment.

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted the 19th package of restrictive measures against Russia, anchored by Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033 amending Regulation 833/2014 (sectoral sanctions), Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2035 amending Regulation 269/2014 (asset-freeze listings — 22 individuals + 42 entities, total 69 listings), and Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (parallel Belarus measures). The package closes the Russian-LNG import loophole left open by the 18th package and establishes the architectural template for crypto-asset sanctions. Headline measures: (i) full prohibition on imports of Russian-origin LNG into the EU — short-term contracts banned six months from entry into force (effective 25 April 2026), long-term contracts (> 1 year, executed before 17 June 2025) phased out by 1 January 2027; (ii) full transaction ban on Rosneft and Gazprom Neft (tightening prior partial measures); (iii) five additional Russian banks added to Annex XIV transaction ban (Alfa-Bank, MTS Bank among them; effective 12 November 2025); (iv) full transaction bans on the Mir card payment system and the Faster Payments System (SBP), effective 25 January 2026; (v) first-ever EU sanctions on a stablecoin — the rouble-backed A7A5 (issuer + developer designated) — and a Paraguay-based cryptocurrency exchange used as a circumvention rail; (vi) prohibition on EU operators contracting with 11 listed Russian Special Economic Zones (Annex LII), with mandatory divestment from Alabuga (Tatarstan) and Technopolis Moscow effective 25 January 2026 — no five-year wind-down available; (vii) 45 entities added to Annex IV military end-user list (28 Russian + 17 third-country: 12 Chinese/Hong Kong, 3 Indian, 2 Thai); (viii) new export restrictions on electronic components, microelectronics, acyclic hydrocarbons, pneumatic rubber tires and propellant chemicals (~EUR 155 m of EU 2024 exports); (ix) prohibition on supply of AI, HPC, and quantum-computing services to Russian persons (effective 25 November 2025); (x) tourism-services ban (1 January 2026 wind-down); (xi) 117 additional shadow-fleet vessels listed (cumulative 557, exceeding the 18th package's 444); (xii) four Belarus + Kazakhstan banks listed for SPFS use (effective 2 December 2025); (xiii) binding ownership/control definitions added to Reg. 269/2014 (50 % proprietary-rights threshold + eight-criterion control test). Entry into force on 24 October 2025 (day following publication in OJ L_202502033), except for measures with explicit deferred application dates.

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006) and Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/2040 (amending Decision 2012/642/CFSP), widening the EU's Belarus restrictive-measures regime in lockstep with the 19th Russia sanctions package adopted the same day. The package widens the export ban to industrial goods (salts, ores, rubber articles, tyres, millstones, construction materials, electronic components, rangefinders, propellant chemicals, metals/oxides/alloys), extends the import ban to all acyclic hydrocarbons, introduces a new prior-licensing requirement for services supplied to Belarus, its government, or public bodies, and mirrors the Russia regime's space, AI, and high-performance/ quantum-computing service restrictions. A companion instrument, Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2039, adds 5 new asset-freeze listings (2 individuals + 3 entities, including JSC Holography Industry, Horizont Holding, and ICT Horizont). Entered into force 24 October 2025.

On 23 September 2025 the European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules (case SA.120081), a EUR 100 million budget increase to Portugal's scheme compensating energy-intensive companies for indirect emission costs — the higher electricity prices passed through from carbon costs under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The increase raises the scheme's total budget to EUR 275 million and was notified to avoid a significant reduction in per-company compensation levels for costs incurred during 2021-2030 (final payments due 2031). The Commission found the amended scheme continues to satisfy the ETS State aid Guidelines, which exist to prevent carbon leakage — energy-intensive firms relocating production outside the EU to jurisdictions with less ambitious climate policy.

The European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1901 on 22 September 2025, imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of glyoxylic acid (CAS 298-12-4, purity ≥95%, CN code ex 2918 30 00, TARIC 2918300013) originating in China for five years. Duty rates are differentiated by exporter: Hubei Hongyuan 29.2%, Xinjiang Guolin 130.0%, other cooperating producers 64.0%, and all non-cooperating Chinese imports 210.5%. The regulation definitively collects provisional duties previously imposed under Regulation (EU) 2025/591 (up to 280.3% provisional rates) from 24 March 2025.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1045 of 12 May 2026, imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of certain alkyl phosphonic acids and their sodium salts originating in the People's Republic of China — specifically 2-phosphonobutane-1,2,4- tricarboxylic acid (PBTC) and its sodium salt (Tetrasodium hydrogen 2-phosphonatobutane-1,2,4- tricarboxylate, PBTC-Na4), in solid form or aqueous solution, falling under CN code 2931 49 80. Provisional duties range from 182.9% to 219.4% depending on the exporting producer. The measure entered into force on 14 May 2026, the day after publication in the Official Journal, and follows an investigation initiated on 18 September 2025 pursuant to a complaint lodged on 7 August 2025 by LANXESS Deutschland GmbH. PBTC is a scale-inhibitor/chelating agent used in industrial water treatment, oilfield services and detergent formulation.

Iberdrola Clientes' GRHENA project — a green industrial-heat generation hub at the Chemical Industrial Park of Tarragona, Spain, designed to produce up to 648 GWh/year of steam via electric boilers powered by renewable electricity — was awarded a EUR 53,938,146 (~USD 63.5 million) grant under the European Commission's Innovation Fund. The Grant Agreement was signed on 22 July 2025 as part of a batch of six Innovation Fund 2023 general-call projects (worth EUR 319 million combined) that collectively target 24.1 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent avoided over their first ten years of operation. GRHENA is described as the first large-scale demonstrator of direct industrial electrification of heat generation, replacing natural gas at the Tarragona chemical complex.

On 8 July 2025 the European Commission adopted Communication COM(2025) 530 final, the "European Chemicals Industry Action Plan", together with companion staff-working document SWD(2025) 191. The Plan launches a Critical Chemicals Alliance (CCA) of Member States and industry stakeholders to safeguard EU production of strategic base chemicals (ammonia, urea, ethylene, propylene, methanol, chlorine, silicon and other high-volume building blocks) against capacity closures driven by structurally high energy/feedstock costs and third-country oversupply. The package combines (i) accelerated trade-defence on imports of PVC, melamine, glyoxylic acid, ethanolamines and polyols plus extension of the Combined Safeguard Mechanism into chemicals; (ii) energy-cost relief through swift implementation of the Affordable Energy Action Plan and an indirect-CBAM offset for chemicals exposed to high-energy input costs; (iii) a 6th Omnibus simplification package overhauling REACH, CLP labelling, cosmetics and fertilising-product rules with claimed industry savings of at least €363m/year; (iv) a framework for a follow-on Critical Chemicals Act and PFAS restrictions preserving critical applications. The chemicals sector covers ~29,000 EU companies, 1.2m direct jobs, and ~19m dependent supply-chain jobs.

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1303 of 23 June 2025, published in the Official Journal on 30 June 2025 and applying from 1 July 2025, amends Regulation (EU) 2021/2278 and replaces the EU's autonomous Common Customs Tariff (CCT) duty-suspension list for agricultural and industrial inputs "not produced in the Union in sufficient quantity." The revision extends or newly grants reduced/zero duty treatment to 79 industrial products across 48 six-digit CN tariff subheadings, while also raising import duties on four specific products: rubber thread and cord (CN 4007.00.00), certain flexible plastic sheets/plates/film (CN 3920.10.89), and fixed vegetable/microbial fats and oils (CN 1515.60.99). The measure is erga omnes (applies to all trading partners, not a bilateral concession).

The European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1206 on 19 June 2025, suspending GSP+ tariff preferences on non-fuel ethanol (CN codes 2207 10 and 2207 20, excluding TARIC-coded fuel-use ethanol) imported from Pakistan, effective 21 June 2025 for two years. The measure invokes the safeguard clause (Article 30 of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012) after finding that a surge in duty-free Pakistani ethanol — 27% of all EU non-fuel ethanol imports in 2024 (roughly 215,929 tonnes), priced around 25% below EU producer prices — caused serious injury to the EU bioethanol industry. Reinstated Common Customs Tariff duties are approximately EUR 243/tonne (CN 2207 10) and EUR 129/tonne (CN 2207 20).

The European Commission on 20 May 2025 published the results of the second EU Hydrogen Bank auction (IF24), selecting 15 renewable hydrogen production projects across five European Economic Area countries to share approximately €992 million in Innovation Fund grants. Winning projects span transport, chemicals, methanol, and ammonia end-uses; three projects were selected under a dedicated maritime-fuels lot. Spain, Lithuania, and Austria committed over €700 million in additional national co-funding via the Auctions-as-a-Service mechanism, bringing total public support above €1.69 billion and marking the first large-scale EEA co-funded hydrogen auction.

On 26 February 2025 the European Commission adopted the "Clean Industrial Deal" (CID), Communication COM(2025) 85 final, framed as a joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation. The CID bundles state-aid simplification, energy-cost relief, lead-market creation, capital mobilisation and circular-economy mandates into a single industrial strategy targeting both energy-intensive industries (steel, metals, chemicals, cement) and clean-tech manufacturing (batteries, solar, wind, heat pumps, electrolyzers). The Commission claims the package will mobilise more than €100 billion of public-and-private financing for EU-made clean manufacturing through a strengthened Innovation Fund, amendments to the InvestEU Regulation (up to €50bn additional guarantee capacity) and a proposed Industrial Decarbonisation Bank. CID directly precedes the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF, adopted 25 June 2025) and seeds legislative work on an Industrial Accelerator Act, a Circular Economy Act, and a strengthened CBAM. Severity 4 on mixed basis: explicit €100bn+ quant headline plus qualitative breadth across the EU industrial perimeter, formally re-anchoring the von der Leyen II mandate around competitiveness rather than pure decarbonisation.

The European Commission published Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/261 in the Official Journal on 10 February 2025, imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of biodiesel (fatty-acid mono-alkyl esters / FAME and paraffinic gasoils from synthesis or hydro-treatment of non-fossil origin / HVO) originating in China. Duties range from 10.0% (EcoCeres, an individually-examined producer) to 21.7%–35.6% for other exporters, applied on top of the MFN import duty, covering an estimated €1.4 billion of annual EU-bound Chinese biodiesel flows. The regulation supersedes provisional duties imposed under CR (EU) 2024/2163 and explicitly excludes Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from the AD scope while introducing mandatory SAF import-registration tracking.

Regulation (EU) 2025/40, published in the Official Journal on 22 January 2025 and entering into force on 11 February 2025, replaces the 1994 Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC with a directly-applicable Regulation. It mandates binding recycled-content targets for plastic packaging (by polymer and format, reaching 30–65% by 2030 with higher targets by 2040), minimum reusable-packaging shares for beverages and transport, recyclability standards for all packaging placed on the EU market from 2030, deposit-return-scheme obligations for beverage containers from 2029, and bans on specified single-use plastic packaging formats. General application begins 12 August 2026, with staggered compliance windows extending to 2030 and beyond, affecting all non-EU exporters shipping consumer goods, beverages, or e-commerce fulfilment into the EU single market.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/4 on 17 December 2024, imposing definitive five-year anti-dumping duties on imports of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) originating in China, published in the OJ on 9 January 2025. Duty rates are differentiated by Chinese exporter: €0.25/kg for Anhui Jinhe Star (Gold Star), €0.74/kg for Lomon Billions Group and all non-cooperating exporters, and €0.64/kg for other cooperating producers — converting the provisional ad-valorem duties (14.4%–39.7%) imposed by CR 2024/1923 in July 2024 into specific definitive measures covering CN codes 3206 11 00 and 3206 19 00. China filed WTO dispute DS636 in April 2025 challenging the measure.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), replaces the 2009 Ecodesign Directive with a cross-cutting product-sustainability framework covering nearly all physical goods placed on the EU single market. It empowers the Commission to adopt binding delegated acts setting ecodesign requirements (durability, reparability, recyclability, recycled content, chemical restrictions, energy and resource efficiency) by product category, establishes a mandatory Digital Product Passport (DPP) for supply-chain traceability, and bans the destruction of unsold consumer products. The regulation entered into force on 18 July 2024; the Commission's first ESPR and Energy Labelling Working Plan (2025–2030, COM(2025) 187) was adopted in April 2025, prioritising textiles, furniture, tyres, electronics, and iron/steel/aluminium.

Directive (EU) 2024/1760, adopted 13 June 2024 and entering into force 25 July 2024, imposes binding human-rights and environmental due-diligence obligations on large in-scope EU and non-EU companies across their chains of activities (upstream supply chain, own operations, and a limited part of downstream distribution). In-scope companies must identify, prevent, mitigate, and bring to an end actual and potential adverse human-rights and environmental impacts — covering forced labour, child labour, hazardous chemicals, and biodiversity loss — with obligations phased in from FY 2027 (EU companies with >5 000 employees and >EUR 1.5 bn turnover) through FY 2029 (>1 000 employees and >EUR 450 m). Companies must also adopt a climate transition plan compatible with the Paris Agreement 1.5 °C pathway (Art 22), and face civil liability for damages in national courts (Art 29); the original transposition deadline of 26 July 2026 was postponed and scope narrowed by the EU Omnibus I package (Directive 2026/470).

On 25 February 2023, one year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2023/427, the 10th package of sanctions, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. It entered into force on publication the following day (26 February 2023). The package bans imports of asphalt and synthetic rubber from Russia (with a temporary transitional import quota for rubber products running to 30 June 2024), expands the export ban on dual-use and advanced-technology goods, suspends further Russian media broadcasting licences in the EU, and designates 87 individuals and 34 entities — including Iranian persons and entities involved in drone manufacture and supply, and 96 entities tied to Russia's defence-industrial base — to the EU asset-freeze/travel-ban list.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/111 on 18 January 2023, imposing a definitive five-year anti-dumping duty of 15.2%-46.4% on imports of fatty acid originating in Indonesia, published in the Official Journal on 19 January 2023 and entering into force the following day. The two sampled exporter groups, PT Musim Mas (with related exporter PT Intibenua Perkasatama) and PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, received individual company-specific rates; a residual rate applies to non-cooperating exporters. On 28 August 2026 the WTO Dispute Settlement Body adopted a panel report (DS622) finding the EU violated the Anti-Dumping Agreement by using the wrong exchange-rate date when converting a portion of export transactions from euro to US dollars, giving the EU 30 days to state its compliance intentions; the underlying duty remains in force pending that process.

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/66, adopted 21 October 2022 and published in the Official Journal on 11 January 2023 (OJ L 9), replaces Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2021/821 (the EU Dual-Use Recast Regulation) with an updated control list implementing the 2022 multilateral decisions of the Wassenaar Arrangement, MTCR, Australia Group, NSG and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Per GTA's tracking of the CN-code-level change, the update removed 7 six-digit CN codes and added 8 new ones. It entered into force on 12 January 2023, the day after publication.

On 16 December 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2474, the 9th package of restrictive measures against Russia, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. It entered into force on publication the following day (17 December 2022). The package extends the prohibition on new EU investment from the Russian energy sector to the Russian mining and quarrying sector, bans exports of aircraft and drone engines and their parts to Russia (and to any third country that could re-supply drones to Russia), adds 168 entities to the sectoral export- control annex covering chemicals, nerve agents, night-vision and radio- navigation equipment, electronics and IT components, and prohibits EU advertising, market-research, product-testing and technical-inspection services to Russia. A parallel Council Decision/Implementing Regulation designated a further 141 individuals and 49 entities to the EU asset-freeze and travel-ban list.

Directive (EU) 2022/2555 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union (NIS 2 Directive), published OJ L 333, 27 December 2022, entered into force 16 January 2023. NIS2 repeals and substantially expands the 2016 NIS1 Directive (2016/1148), extending the scope from ~7 sectors to 18 enumerated essential and important sectors, imposing binding cybersecurity risk- management and incident-reporting obligations on covered entities, introducing board-level management accountability, and mandating Member State transposition by 17 October 2024. NIS2 is the structural EU statutory anchor for national cybersecurity frameworks across the bloc, operating alongside DORA (Reg 2022/2554) for financial-sector digital resilience and CRA (Reg 2024/2847) for product cybersecurity.

On 6 October 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1904, amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014, as the EU's eighth package of restrictive measures against Russia. It entered into force 7 October 2022. The regulation's headline measure creates the legal basis for an oil price-cap mechanism: a ban on maritime transport to third countries of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products, becoming operational once the Council sets an actual cap level by a separate decision (the G7/EU $60/bbl cap followed on 3 December 2022). The package also expands import bans on steel products (phased through 2024), firearms and ammunition, wood pulp and paper, and certain chemicals, cosmetics and jewellery materials; extends export bans on aviation-sector goods; bans the provision of architectural, engineering, IT-consultancy and legal advisory services to the Russian government and Russian companies; and imposes restrictions on Russian-flagged vessels at the Russian Maritime Register.

On 3 June 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/879, the sixth package of sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, further amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014. It bans the seaborne import of Russian crude oil and refined petroleum products, covering roughly two-thirds of EU oil imports from Russia at adoption (pipeline deliveries via Druzhba were temporarily exempted). It removes Sberbank, Credit Bank of Moscow and Russian Agricultural Bank from SWIFT (Annex XIV), bans EU operators from providing accounting, auditing, bookkeeping, tax consulting, business/management consulting and public-relations services to persons in Russia (new Article 5n), and adds three more Russian broadcasters to the EU broadcasting-suspension list (Annex XV). It entered into force on 4 June 2022, the day after publication in the Official Journal.

On 8 April 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/576, further amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 (the fifth package of measures against Russia). It bans imports of Russian coal and other solid fossil fuels, wood, cement, rubber, fertilisers, high-end seafood and spirits; bans exports to Russia of jet fuel, quantum computers, advanced semiconductors, high-end electronics and sensitive machinery; bars Russian and Belarusian road-freight operators from EU territory; and closes EU ports to Russian-flagged vessels. It entered into force on 9 April 2022, the day after publication in the Official Journal (OJ L 111).

Regulation (EU) 2021/821, adopted 20 May 2021 and applied from 9 September 2021, establishes the Union regime for controlling exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit, and transfer of dual-use items, repealing Regulation (EC) No 428/2009. Annex I lists controlled items implementing internationally agreed dual-use controls under the Wassenaar Arrangement, MTCR, Australia Group, NSG, and Chemical Weapons Convention. The regulation introduces a new catch-all control on cyber-surveillance technologies that could facilitate human-rights violations (Art. 5 and Annex IV), and strengthens cooperation between Member States and the European Commission, placing specific obligations on exporters. It serves as the statutory anchor for all EU export licences, every multilateral-regime transposition into EU law, and coordination mechanisms with US BIS, UK ECJU, JP METI, and KR MOTIE export-control regimes.