The Council of the EU has adopted the Regulation which will protect people who speak out on matters of public interest against abusive lawsuits meant to silence them. Persons targeted by so called strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP), typically journalists and human rights defenders, will benefit from a number of procedural safeguards and measures. Individuals targeted by SLAPP cases will now be able to ask the court to dismiss a manifestly unfounded claim at the earliest possible stage. The court will have the discretion to decide that the claimant must bear the costs of the proceedings, including the costs of legal representation incurred by the SLAPP victim if proceedings are found to be abusive. Under the directive, a SLAPP case will be considered to have cross-border implications unless both parties are domiciled in the same Member State as the court dealing with the matter and all other elements relevant to the situation concerned are located in that Member State. To further support SLAPP victims, Member States will have to provide, in one single place, information on the procedural safeguards and remedies available to SLAPP victims.

The European Commission's proposal for a regulation has been adopted by the Council of the EU, prohibiting products in the Union market that are made using forced labour from being placed, made available, or exported in the EU market. The regulation establishes a framework for investigating and combating forced labour, including the creation of a risk database by the European Commission. Investigations can be initiated by the Commission for non-EU cases or by Member State authorities for domestic cases. Decisions made by one Member State will apply across the EU under mutual recognition. The regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, entering into force the following day, with a three-year implementation period.

The Council of the EU has adopted a new framework for a European digital identity (eID) which aims to ensure that people and businesses across Europe have universal access to secure and trustworthy electronic identification and authentication. Under the new framework, citizens and businesses will be offered digital wallets which will be able to link to their national identities with proof of other personal attributes, eg driving licence, qualifications, bank account. The new digital identity wallets will enable all citizens to access online services with their national digital identification, which will be recognised throughout the EU, without having to use private identification methods or unnecessarily share personal data and user control will ensure that only information that needs to be shared will be shared. The revised regulation will be published in the EU’s Official Journal in the coming weeks and will enter into force 20 days after its publication. The regulation will be fully implemented by 2026.

The Council of the EU has adopted its first reading position on the reform of the Single European Sky to enhance the efficiency of EU airspace management. The reform aims to improve air navigation services, reduce costs, and lower aviation’s environmental impact, while retaining safety and capacity objectives. The European Parliament will now approve the Council’s position and the draft legislative act will be submitted for review before being formally adopted by the co-legislators. The draft act will then be published in the Official Journal of the EU and will enter into force 20 days after publication.

The Council of the European Union has adopted its position on a proposed revision to increase the free allocation of EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) allowances for sectors covered by the heat and fuel benchmarks for 2026–30. The measure, proposed by the European Commission in July 2026, is intended to address competitiveness concerns and reduce the risk of carbon leakage following the update of the relevant benchmarks in June 2026. The Council position would use around 88 million allowances available for free allocation, which the Commission estimates would provide around €6 billion in cost savings to the affected energy-intensive sectors. The Council has also proposed adding a further 33 million allowances that had not previously been allocated because installations had not met existing EU ETS conditionalities. The revised measure will now require agreement with the European Parliament, with negotiations due to begin once Parliament has adopted its position.

The Council of the EU has adopted a recommendation encouraging Member States to continue reducing their gas consumption until 31 March 2025 by at least 15% compared to their average gas consumption in the period from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2022. The recommendation will also assist Member States to take adequate supply security measures until the transposition of the directives on energy efficiency and renewables in 2025 which will bring structural demand reduction in the near future while also achieving EU’s decarbonisation goals.

The Council of the EU has adopted a revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to reduce energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. The new rules aim to make all new buildings zero-emission by 2030 and transform the EU’s building stock into a zero-emission building stock by 2050 and will boost the EU's energy independence, in accordance with the REPowerEU Plan. The directive will now be signed and published in the Official Journal of the EU and Member states will have two years to transpose the provisions of the directive into their national legislation. The European Commission will take into consideration the progress the directive makes during its implementation and review the directive by 2028.

The Council of the European Union has adopted the revision of the Waste Shipment Regulation. The revised regulation will reduce shipments of problematic waste to outside the EU, will revise shipment procedures to show the objectives of the circular economy and climate neutrality to utilise electronic submission and exchange of information and will enhance enforcement and tackle illegal shipments. The new rules will also ensure that waste cannot be sent to non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries unless the country shows willingness to import such a waste and its environmentally sound management of said waste via previous auditing by independent bodies and monitoring carried out by the Commission.

The Council of the EU has adopted revisions to Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 (the EU Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation) to address new hazards, including endocrine disruptors, and adapts to modern trade practices such as online sales and refill stations. The revised CLP Regulation will also enhance labelling clarity and will introduce provisions for voluntary digital labelling. The Regulation will apply to all solid-state chemicals, with a five-year derogation for certain botanical substances, and will take effect three days after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

The Council of the EU has adopted ten legislative acts to reform the European asylum and migration system, which will efficiently manage arrivals, establish uniform procedures and ensure there is fair burden sharing between Member States. The new rules will also allow the Eurodac database to accurately gather and complete data on different categories of migrants, which includes applicants for international protection and people arriving irregularly in the EU. This will inform policy making and improve the control of irregular migration and unauthorised movements. Member States will now have two years to transpose the law. The European Commission is expected to present a common implementation plan to support Member States in the process.

The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have reached a provisional political agreement on rules establishing the EU-level certification framework for carbon removals. The purpose of this voluntary framework is to enable and speed up the deployment of high-quality carbon removal and soil emission reduction activities in the EU. The scope of the regulation is extended to soil emission reductions and maintains an open definition of carbon removals. Activities that do not result in carbon removals or soil emission reductions are not included in the scope of the regulation. The new rules will require carbon removal activities to meet four overarching criteria, which are quantification, additionality, long-term storage and sustainability, in order to be certified. Rules on registration and issuance of units are also outlined in the new rules.

The European Parliament and Council of the EU have reached a political agreement on the amendment of Directive 2005/35/EC on ship-source pollution and on the introduction of penalties for pollution offences (SSP Directive). The co-legislators agreed to align the Directive with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and to extend the scope of the directive to cover more types of polluting substances discharged into the sea, such as sewage and garbage. The rules will be reviewed five years after their transposition into national law to assess if marine plastic litter, loss of containers and plastic pellet spills from ships should also face penalties. EU countries will need to introduce effective and dissuasive fines for ships breaching these rules. The deal is still pending approval by the Council and Parliament. EU countries will have 30 months to transpose new rules into national law and prepare for its implementation.