The European Commission has released guidance for European contracting authorities on using EU law to tackle suspected cases of collusion in public procurement. There has been an increased danger of this during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as public authorities have had the need to urgently procure vast quantities of supplies for health services—some companies may attempt to use this to their advantage and artificially control procurement and restrict competition. The guidance provides a concise and ready to use tool for national authorities to combat those issues, and aims to raise awareness among authorities and businesses to show policies and regulations should still be respected.

The European Commission has published the first draft of its General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence (AI) Code of Practice, developed by independent experts appointed by the AI Office. This draft, based on multi-stakeholder consultations and workshops, will undergo further discussions in working groups and a plenary session. The Code aims to facilitate the implementation of the EU AI Act rules, which come into effect in August 2025. Key aspects of the Code include details on transparency, copyright enforcement, systemic risk taxonomy, risk assessment methodologies, and mitigation measures for advanced general-purpose AI models. Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback by 28 November 2024, with the final document expected in May 2025.

The European Commission has released revised interpretative guidelines on air passenger rights that will enable compliance with regulations and harmonise enforcement by national bodies. The revised interpretative guidelines on the rights of persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air, and a new Eurobarometer survey, which highlights that most Europeans still believe that they lack sufficient information on their passenger rights, even though awareness has increased compared to five years ago, have also been published.

The European Commission has released its Annual Report on Research and Technological Development Activities of the EU and Monitoring of Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 in 2023. The Report deals with political context and policy development as well as the implementation and monitoring of Horizon Europe. Horizon-related topics include monitoring data, in-depth analysis of Horizon monitoring flashes and other studies, and dissemination and exploitation.

The European Commission has released its March 2024 infringements package which sets out the EU Member States that the Commission is taking action against for failing to comply with EU law obligations. The Commission is issuing letters of formal notice, reasoned opinions and referrals to the Court of Justice to Member States including Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Netherlands, Croatia, for breaching their obligations in the environment, internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), migration, home affairs and security union, justice, energy and climate, and mobility and transport.

The European Commission has published the 2025 edition of the NextGenerationEU (NGEU) Green Bonds Annual Allocation and Impact Report, stating that the EU has become one of the largest issuers of green bonds globally. The report shows €78.5bn worth of NextGenerationEU Green Bonds have been issued to date, intended to avoid an estimated 14m tons of CO₂ per year being released. At least 37% of spending in Member States' Recovery and Resilience Plans is designated for sustainable investments and reforms in areas including green infrastructure and renewable energy. The Commission reports that full implementation of climate-related projects under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, worth €262.8bn as of 1 August 2025, has the potential to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by 53.4m tons of CO₂ per year, equivalent to 1.5% of aggregate 2022 EU greenhouse gas emissions.

The European Commission has released its report to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the final evaluation of Horizon 2020, the EU’s eighth framework programme for research and innovation (R&I). The Commission’s findings show that Horizon 2020 has made significant contributions to societal impacts in areas including climate science, heath research, coronavirus (COVID-19) research, rare diseases, sustainable fishing, urban transport and cultural heritage. It also made a significant contribution to the European economy by stimulating employment, leveraging other funds and raising the productivity of the companies involved. The evaluation also highlighted that the programme can be improved by broadening participation, introducing a two-step application process, supporting women in R&I and unlocking more synergies with other EU national and regional initiatives.

The European Commission has published its seventh report under the Visa Suspension Mechanism, evaluating partner countries' adherence to visa-free travel requirements. The Commission has noted that while some progress has been made, several countries still need to align their visa policies with the EU. Concerns were raised about Georgia's compliance, and the potential activation of the visa suspension mechanism was mentioned. The report also highlighted issues with Eastern Caribbean countries' screening procedures and an increase in asylum applications from visa-free Latin American countries. The Commission is urging swift adoption of its proposed revisions to the visa suspension mechanism to address these challenges.

The European Commission has reported that 199 trade defence measures were in place in the EU at the end of 2024, with 33 new investigations launched during the year—the highest number of new cases in a calendar year since 2006—according to its 2024 report on trade defence activities. While many of the measures and investigations concerned steel products, over a third related to the chemical sector. The Commission identified its anti-subsidy investigation into battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China as the most economically significant, resulting in countervailing duties. It also introduced automatic registration of imports in all anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations to detect sharp increases and apply duties retroactively. Measures were extended to address circumvention including duties on birch plywood from Russia extended to Türkiye and Kazakhstan and on stainless-steel cold-rolled flat products from Indonesia extended to Taiwan, Türkiye and Vietnam. The Commission further reported increased outreach to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) navigating trade defence procedures.

The European Commission has requested the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to broaden the scope of the REACH restriction proposal to cover at least 12 chromium (VI) substances, including substances specified in entries 16 to 22 and 28 to 31 of the list. ECHA has also been requested to consider other chromium (VI) substances not listed on the Authorisation List in the restriction proposal, namely barium chromate (EC number 233-660-5) since they could pose risks to workers and the public if used as substitutes to chromium (VI) substances. This request complements the Commission's original request from September 2023 to add chromium trioxide (entry 16) and chromic acids (entry 17) to the REACH Authorisation List.

The European Commission has written to the Council of the EU and European Parliament making a request an urgent amendment to Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 (the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)) to delay implementation by a further year, from 30 December 2025 to 30 December 2026. The Commission is justifying this on the basis of issues with the necessary IT systems, which would otherwise impact businesses and supply chains.

The Commission has been granted broad investigative powers in order to enforce EU competition rules and prosecute antitrust violations, including cartels. Amongst others, the Commission has the power to request undertakings (and associations of undertakings) to 'provide all necessary information'. Two types of request for information (RFI) Article 18 of Regulation 1/2003 provides for two types of requests for information (RFI/s). • simple RFIs, which are not mandatory—recipients are under no obligation to provide the requested information; if recipients decide to answer, they may leave certain questions blank. However, recipients cannot provide incorrect or misleading information. A simple RFI should: ◦ state the legal basis and purpose of the request ◦ specify what information, including documents containing such information, is requested ◦ set the time-limit to provide the information, and ◦ indicate the penalties for supplying incorrect or misleading information • RFIs by decision, which are mandatory—recipients are under the obligation to provide all the requested information. A RFI by decision shall: ◦ state the legal basis and purpose of the request ◦ specify