The Commission welcomes today’s decision by EU Member States to introduce a €3 customs duty per item on e-commerce parcels valued below €150, starting in July 2026. The new duty will help protect the competitiveness of European businesses by levelling the playing field between e-commerce and traditional retail.  

Given the rapid increase in e-commerce goods being imported into the EU, the Commission and Member States have together acknowledged the need for an urgent solution, which will bridge the gap until the setting up of the EU Customs Data Hub in 2028, as part of the EU customs reform.  

The Council and the Commission are working to enable the implementation of this temporary measure, through appropriate legal amendments and by ensuring a well-functioning IT framework.  

The permanent customs duty regime will apply once the EU Customs Data Hub is established. The EU Customs Data Hub will fully integrate new customs data related to e-commerce, providing customs services with a complete picture of goods entering or exiting the EU.  

The temporary customs duty of €3 per item will apply to parcels sent directly to consumers from third countries. This measure is separate from the ongoing negotiation of an EU handling fee on e-commerce parcels.While the customs duty eliminates a competitive advantage that the e–commerce operators currently enjoy, the handling fee is meant to compensate for the increasing costs that customs authorities incur for supervising the very significant flow of parcels.

Protecting EU business from the e-commerce boom

The new customs rules for e-commerce, proposed in the Commission‘s customs reform, will reinforce the EU customs union and better equip customs authorities toprotect theEU retail trade and its workers, as well as EU consumers. Theyare vital to create a level playing field for our EU businesses against growing competition from online platforms abroad. 

Background

Today, parcels valued below €150 that are sent from a third country directly to a consumer in the EU are exempt from customs duties. The Commission proposed the removal of this exemption in May 2023 as part of the customs reform.

The initialproposal for the removal foresaw application as from mid-2028. The Council adopted the removal of the exemption on 13th of November 2025, and called for an earlier application of the measure already in 2026.

Inaddition, in February 2025 in its communication on e-commerce, the Commission introduced the idea of a Union handling fee on goods imported directly to consumers. It was introduced in the customs reform proposal by the Council in its negotiating mandate in June 2025.The handling fee is meant to compensate for the increasing costs for customs authorities of ensuring the release of those goods for free circulation.

According to the Council mandate, the handling fee should enter into force in November 2026. The content and date are currently under negotiation between the Council and the European Parliament in the context of the ongoing customs reform proposal trilogues.
 

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The Council’s presidency and the European Parliament’s representatives reached today a provisional political agreement on the revision of the foreign direct investment (FDI) screening regulation. The updated framework aims to strengthen the EU’s ability to identify, assess and address risks posed by certain foreign investments, while preserving the openness to global trade and investment.
The revised regulation builds on the functioning of the current FDI screening framework, which is key to safeguarding public order and security across the EU. The agreement strengthens the current system, mandating screening mechanisms with a common minimum scope to be carried out by all Member States, and foreign investments through EU subsidiaries covered as well.
The agreement also increases consistency across national mechanisms, reducing administrative burden for investors, and ensuring that the potential cross-border security implications of foreign investments will be screened.
 
“Today’s agreement strengthens the EU’s capacity to protect its security and public order, while ensuring Europe remains an attractive destination for investors. We achieved a balanced and proportionate framework, focused on the most sensitive technologies and infrastructures, respectful of national prerogatives and efficient for authorities and businesses alike.”
-Morten Bødskov, Denmark’s minister for industry, business and financial affairs
Main elements of the agreement
A common minimum scope of screenings
To ensure a higher degree of harmonisation across the EU, the co-legislators agreed that all member states would establish screening mechanisms covering a targeted and clearly defined set of sensitive areas where they must screen foreign investments. The minimum scope includes:

dual-use items and military equipment
hyper-critical technologies, such as artificial intelligence (aligned with the EU AI Act definitions and focused on general-purpose AI with relevance to space or defence), quantum technologies and semiconductors
critical raw materials
critical entities in energy, transport and digital infrastructure, based on a risk-based assessment by the member state where the EU target is established
electoral infrastructures (e.g. voter databases, voting systems, electoral management systems)
A limited list of financial system entities, narrowed to include only central counterparties, central securities depositories, operators of regulated markets, operators of payment systems (excluding central banks) and systemically important institutions.

A strengthened but proportionate cooperation and accountability mechanism
The agreement confirms that screening decisions remain the exclusive responsibility of the member statein which the investment is being made. Member states retain full discretion in deciding whether to authorise, condition or prohibit an investment. The final text preserved this principle while improving transparency and coordination among national authorities and the Commission.
In cases where comments from other member states or an opinion from the Commission have been issued, the screening member state will explain how these were considered, including reasons for any disagreement, without prejudice to sensitive national security considerations. According to the agreement, the Commission may assist the host member state in gathering information.
Streamlining processes and interoperability
The agreement also clarified and streamlined several operational aspects of the framework, including:

a new shared database to prevent circumvention and make exchange of relevant experience easier between authorities
an optional single portal for the electronic filing of foreign investments, to be set up if at least nine member states request it
clarification of risk factors for assessing foreign investments.

Next steps
The provisional agreement will now be endorsed by the Council and the Parliament before being formally adopted. The new rules will start applying 18 months after the entry into force of the regulation.
Background
The current FDI screening regulation has been in force since October 2020 and created, for the first time, an EU-wide framework enabling member states and the Commission to cooperate on the screening of foreign direct investments likely to affect security or public order.
Since its introduction, the number of member states with a national screening mechanism has grown significantly. However, divergences in scope, thresholds, timelines and procedures persist, creating uncertainty for investors and potential risks for the internal market. Moreover, evolving geopolitical and technological challenges, including threats to critical infrastructure, supply chain dependencies and the rapid development of dual-use technologies, highlighted the need to update the EU’s approach.
The revision of the regulation was one of the initiatives announced in the Commission’s 2024 package on strengthening the EU’s economic security.
 
 
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Remarks by  Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare of the European Commission at the conclusion of an Implementation Dialogue on import controls with stakeholders.
 
Thank you, thank you very much.
And thank you very much for showing interest.
As you know, food safety is central to my mandate as European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare.
We have a very extensive and robust body of legislation in this area to safeguard animal health and welfare, but also when it comes to plant health and food safety. All of this is designed with one notion in mind: to protect the health of EU citizens.
As a result, we can be proud that Europe claims the highest food safety and quality standards around the world. And we all know that Europe is also a hub of food exports. Europe is also a continent with a very high level of food sovereignty.
On the other hand, we also see that agri-food imports account for almost EUR 160 billion a year.
And we have a robust system of official controls to ensure that imports also comply with our very high standards.
Member States’ authorities are playing a crucial role at our borders to make sure that only safe products are reaching our consumers.
 
The reason why we have organised this press point is the fact that today we held the second implementation dialogue of the year related to this area.
The topic today while meeting stakeholder – agri-food companies, NGOs, etc… – was actually to discuss import controls.
I think that we have been able to look not only at the challenges but also the potential solutions to improve even further the controls and the enforcement of our rules.
I think we got some very good ideas: how to reduce administrative burden while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our controls – and ensuring very high safety standards all the way, when entering the internal market.
 
I already have some announcements to make on how we want to improve the functionning of the controls system.
Not only because of the stakeholder dialogue and impletementation dialogue we had – It has been a reflexion of ours since we have started working on the Vision for Agriculture and Food.
In January, as a first step, we will reinforce significantly the level of controls both in the EU and outside. The framework to deliver this will be the creation of a special Task Force on import controls where we want to gather even closer the authorities of the Member States together with our own experts, while also seeing how to make our controls more effective.
We have been discussing this topic also with our farmer community – and you have already seen the direction of the policy that we want to create during this mandate in the Vision for Agriculture and Food.
So that we make sure our farmers are not faced with international competition that is unfair, in the sense that imports should face the exact same rules and requirements our farmers have to face when they are producing food, plants or animals on the EU market.
In this mandate, we will want to do much more to reinforce these controls.
First of all, we aim at better alignment of our standards with third countries. In this regard, what was particularly highlighted in the Vision was the topics related to pesticides.
At our farmers’ request, and supported by a number of Member States, we committed to a principle which is not to allow the most hazardous pesticides – which are banned in the EU – back into the EU through imported products.
This strengthened reciprocity will guarantee that the EU’s ambitious standards do not create a competitive disadvantage for our farmers and the agri-food sector, while responding to consumers’ expectations.
The Commission has already launched an impact assessment to see how this principle can be fully implemented and operationalised, taking into account our competitive position and potential trade implications.
In the meantime, we will work immediately to update our rules on allowing imports of products with traces of particularly hazardous pesticides that are banned in the EU, following recently updated international standards
If these pesticides are not allowed in the EU for reasons related to health protection in Europe, they should not be found as residues in our food.
 
When it comes to import controls, and that is my second point, I plan to step up our already very thorough work.
We need to act to improve our level of audits directly on the ground in third countries.
This is why the Commission will increase its export related audits in non-EU countries by 50% over the next 2 years – starting from 1 January 2026.
We will step up our monitoring of non-compliant commodities and countries and adapt the frequency of our checks to those accordingly.
 
Thirdly, we need to strengthen the level of controls within the EU, namely at our main entry points – which are the sea ports.
In this regard, we will perform a higher number of checks in Member States, to ensure controls at the borders comply fully with EU standards. We will also support these Member States to properly carry out these checks.
 
With these import controls reinforced to be strong and effective, we want to send a very clear message:
For our own food safety framework, these are essential steps to be made. They are steps we are ready to make, steps that are going to be taken immediately.
I hope that with this, we are taking our food safety to the next level.
 
 
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by Piero Cipollone and Valdis Dombrovskis.
The ECB plans to prepare for the potential issuance of the digital euro by 2029, assuming the European co-legislators adopt the necessary regulation by 2026. Preparatory steps, including pilot exercises and initial transactions, could begin as early as mid-2027.

From barter to coins to banknotes to cards, the payment systems Europeans have relied on have never stopped evolving. Throughout history, innovations have made these systems increasingly sophisticated, efficient and convenient. Today, technology is transforming our society at an extraordinary pace. It is only natural, then, that our currency should also adapt. Europe needs a digital euro for the digital age.
For now, euro cash exists only in physical form – the banknotes and coins we hold in our wallets. As the most tangible expression of our single currency, cash brings us together. We know we can rely on cash. It is accepted throughout the euro area. It is easy to use and inclusive. It protects privacy. And it is our money, issued by a public institution, the European Central Bank (ECB).
However, more and more Europeans are choosing to pay digitally in shops or buy products online. We therefore need a digital form of cash to complement the banknotes and coins we are familiar with. The digital euro is designed to respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by this transition.
This is the purpose of the Single Currency Package, presented by the European Commission in 2023. It puts forward two proposals which are currently being discussed by European legislators.
The first proposal aims to ensure individuals and businesses can continue to access and pay with euro banknotes and coins across the euro area. In parallel, the ECB is developing the next generation of euro banknotes with a new design to make them more attractive, relatable and inclusive for all Europeans, while ensuring they remain as secure and sustainable as possible. Euro coins and banknotes are not going anywhere. Europeans will have the choice to pay in euro banknotes and coins or in digital euro. The digital euro is designed to complement, not replace, cash.
The second proposal sets out a framework for a digital euro. This framework ensures that the digital euro will be free, simple and inclusive. Accepted for any digital payment across the euro area, the digital euro will meet the highest cash-like privacy protection standards. It will work online and offline, supporting digital payments on websites as well as transactions made without an internet connection.
In addition, the digital euro should be seen in the broader context of the need to improve Europe’s strategic autonomy. Today, our payments landscape is dominated by non-European providers. We lack a European digital solution – accepted for any digital payments throughout the euro area – that can fill the gap left by declining cash use.
Ultimately, this makes us dependent on foreign-owned companies in an increasingly polarised and fragmented world. Ceding such a degree of technological control over the EU’s economy to others deeply impedes Europe’s ability to act autonomously on the world stage. It poses real threats to our resilience and our economic security. This is why we must act to reduce the external dependencies that might hinder our freedom to pursue policies in line with our own values and interests.
The digital euro will not compete with private means of payment. It will complement them, making it easier for European private payment solutions to scale up and to expand their reach and the features they offer.
2026 will be a crucial year for the digital euro project. At a recent summit, leaders of euro area countries welcomed the latest progress. They also emphasised the importance of swiftly completing legislative work and accelerating other preparatory steps. The ECB is preparing for the potential issuance of the digital euro by 2029, assuming the necessary legislation is adopted next year. These preparations will include a pilot exercise that is planned to begin in 2027.
The euro has become a mark of Europe’s economic strength and a symbol of our unity in the world. In 2026 the euro area will welcome its 21st member, Bulgaria. The currency that will power the prosperity of 21 euro area countries must now fully embrace the technologies of the 21st century.
The digital euro is an idea whose time has come. It is not just the latest step in the evolution of our money, it is integral to promoting our strategic autonomy and making the most of the digital age.
Check out The ECB Blog and subscribe for future posts.
For topics relating to banking supervision, why not have a look at The Supervision Blog?
 
 
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The EU and Canada reinforced their cooperation and reaffirmed shared interests to boost competitiveness, innovation and economic resilience during the first Digital Partnership Council held today in Montreal, Canada. The Council took place back-to-back with the G7 Industry, Digital and Technology Ministerial meeting, hosted by Canada.
Both the EU and Canada have launched strategies to strengthen their competitiveness and digital sovereignty and reiterated the importance of supporting companies, especially small and medium-sized (SMEs), with smart regulations.
Co-chaired by Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, and Canada’s Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, the Council welcomed the cooperation under the Partnership and set an ambitious agenda for the months to come. The EU and Canada agreed to explore opportunities to cooperate with like-minded partners on issues of common interest.
Supporting innovation and boosting AI adoption in strategic sectors
The EU and Canada are committed to developing trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that respect fundamental rights and facilitate trade, investment and economic growth. To enhance their cooperation on AI standards, regulation, skills development and adoption, the partners signed today a Memorandum of Understanding on Artificial Intelligence.
In line with the EU’s Apply AI Strategy and the Canadian framework, the partners will share  best practices to accelerate AI adoption in strategic sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, energy, culture, science and public services, and support SMEs. They committed to work together on large AI infrastructures and support industry and academia’s access to AI compute capacity. They will also explore scientific cooperation on fundamental AI research, and the development of advanced AI models for the public good, including in areas such as extreme weather monitoring and climate change.
In addition, the EU and Canada will set up a structured dialogue on data spaces, of particular relevance to the development of large AI models.
Deepening cooperation on trust services
To leverage the cooperation on digital credentials and trust services, including on technical interoperability and solutions based on digital identity wallets, the EU and Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Digital Credentials and Trust Services.
Both partners plan to establish a forum to facilitate joint testing of digital credential technologies, drive pilot projects, and share information. They will develop joint use cases and pilot projects towards interoperability of digital identity wallets and digital credentials and trust services.
Strengthening media independence
The digital transformation of the news media landscape has led to challenges such as increased reliance on a few online platforms and risks posed by AI to journalism. The EU and Canada recognise that access to independent, reliable and pluralistic media, including on online platforms, is essential for democracy.
They will explore closer collaboration on the strengthening of independent media by supporting local journalism for example. They will also explore cooperation on enhancing information integrity online, including on the challenges posed by generative AI and the risks stemming from foreign information manipulation and interference.
Deepening and broadening the cooperation
As trusted partners, the EU and Canada are committed to working together on secure international connectivity, for example in 5G and subsea cables, and have agreed to explore new cable routes to strengthen global network resilience, including in the Arctic region.
The EU and Canada will deepen the collaboration in priority topics such as quantum technologies, semiconductors, and high-performance computing.
They also reaffirmed their commitment to resilient semiconductor supply chains and secure and sovereign cloud infrastructure and data centres.
Background
On 24 November 2023, the EU and Canada launched a Digital Partnership to reinforce cooperation on digital issues. The partnership reflects a shared vision for a positive and human-centric digital economy and society. The EU and Canada agreed to work together in crucial areas such as AI, secure international connectivity, cyber security, online platforms, digital identity and digital skills.
This Digital Partnership and its importance were highlighted in the New EU-Canada Strategic Partnership of the Future, adopted at the Canada-EU Summit on 23 June 2025.
 
 
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