News

With the political agreement reached at the end of March 2026 on the reform of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 (the "Union Customs Code" - UCC), the European Parliament and the Council are comprehensively modernising EU-wide customs law, thereby responding to profound changes in global trade, in particular the strong growth of e-commerce. The draft reform aims to further harmonise customs supervision, make it more data-driven, and enhance protection against unsafe or non-compliant goods. A central elemement of the reform is the establishment of a new EU Customs Authority and the creation of a new central digital platform ("EU Customs Data Hub"), which is intended to gradually replace the currently fragmented IT systems of the Member States and, for the first time, enable EU-wide real-time data exchange as well as consolidated risk analyses. The proposal also provides for far-reaching adjustments to the rules governing the incurrence of customs debt, as well as new provisions designed to ensure that e-commerce platforms involved in distance sales to consumers in the EU will in the future bear greater responsibility under customs law. Further elements include preferential treatment for particularly reliable economic operators and the abolition of the EUR 150 de minimus threshold, which is to be replaced by a handling fee for direct deliveries to end consumers.

In die Reihe der neuen Partnerschaften der EU fügt sich in diesem Jahr ein weiteres Highlight ein: der Abschluss eines neuen Freihandelsabkommens („FTA“) und die Gründung einer Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspartnerschaft zwischen der Europäischen Union („EU“) und Australien. EU-Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen und der australische Premierminister Anthony Albanese gaben am 24. März 2026 in Canberra die politische Einigung über die Inhalte des Freihandelsabkommens bekannt; die Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspartnerschaft war bereits zuvor virtuell unterzeichnet worden. Nach den jüngst abgeschlossenen Abkommen – unter anderem mit den Mercosur-Staaten und Indien – trägt dieses Abkommen zur weiteren Diversifizierung des Netzwerkes der EU-Handelspartner in der strategisch wichtigen Regionen bei. Für die EU bringt das Freihandelsabkommen insbesondere eine weitgehende Abschaffung der Zölle auf Warenausfuhren, einen verbesserten Zugang zum australischen Markt für kritische Rohstoffe sowie erleichterte Bedingungen für dieTeilnahme an öffentlichen Ausschreibungen in Australien mit sich.

The international trade law firm Cattwyk is significantly expanding its presence in Brussels. On April 1, 2026, renowned international trade lawyer Yves Melin and his team of three counsels and two associates will join Cattwyk from the US law firm Cassidy Levy Kent (CLK). With this new addition, Cattwyk's Brussels office will grow to a total of ten lawyers.

“The urgency could not be greater,” declared EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Antwerp European Industry Summit on 11 February 2026, highlighting the profound challenges the European Union faces in an increasingly competitive global market and a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape. In the light of these challenges, the EU has recognised the need for a more strategic and resilient industrial policy. The goal is explicit: by 2035, the EU aims to reverse the decline in industrial output and raise the manufacturing sector’s share to 20% of EU GDP. To support this transformation, the European Commission presented a draft of the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) on 4 March 2026, seeking to translate the industrial policy goals of the Clean Industrial Deal and the security policy principles set out in JOIN/2025/977 into binding legislation. The draft identifies several strategically significant sectors, including energyintensive industries, the production of netzero technologies, and the automotive industry. Across these areas, the EU aims to unlock industrial potential through measures such as minimum EU production share requirements as a condition for accessing public procurement and public support schemes, tighter rules on certain foreign direct investments, and streamlined administrative procedures.

In a press release dated 30 January 2026, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie – BMWE) announced a new package of measures, jointly adopted with the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle – BAFA), aimed at accelerating and simplifying export controls for military and dual‑use items. In light of the current security policy challenges, the package includes several revised and newly introduced General Authorisations (Allgemeine Genehmigungen – AGGen), which entered into force on 1 February 2026. The following article provides a brief overview of the most important changes.

The administration of numerous tariff quotas is based on the so-called “first-come, first serve” principle. For the application of a reduced customs duty rate under a tariff quota, the decisive factor is the time at which the customs declaration is accepted. The General Court of the European Union (GC) (Case T-177/25) has now clarified: A missing quota number cannot be added later in order to benefit from a quota that has already been exhausted and thus obtain a lower rate of duty. The quota number must be stated completely and correctly when the declaration is submitted – otherwise, the regular rate of duty applies.

It’s a well-documented fact that a proportion of unsold products (especially textiles) are routinely being destroyed before being used, generating significant avoidable waste and CO² emissions. To address this issue, Article 24 of the Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for sustainable products (ESPR) requires businesses to disclose data about unsold consumer products while Article 25 sets an outright ban on the destruction of certain products. On 9 February 2026, the European Commission (EC) published a delegated act setting out exemptions from this ban (section 1), as well as an implementing regulation specifying the format for the disclosure requirements regarding discarded unsold consumer products (section 2).

The Act on the Adjustment of Criminal Offenses and Penalties for Violations of Restrictive Measures of the European Union (Gesetz zur Anpassung von Straftatbeständen und Sanktionen bei Verstößen gegen restriktive Maßnahmen der Europäischen Union), which came into force on 6 February 2026, adapts in particular the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz – AWG) and the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (Außenwirtschaftsverordnung – AWV) to the requirements of the EU Directive on the definition of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures, Directive (EU) 2024/1226. The aim is to close loopholes in criminal liability and create a hrmonized, effective EU-wide criminal regime for violations of EU sanctions. The changes will in some cases lead to an increase in penal risks for companies and responsible persons. Numerous violations of EU sanctions that were previously only punishable as administrative offenses under German law will in future be prosecuted as criminal offenses, while at the same time new offenses will be introduced and existing penalties expanded. The most important changes for companies are outlined below.

With the political agreement on a Free Trade Agreement (“FTA”) between the European Union (“EU”) and India on January 27, 2026, a significant breakthrough has been achieved after years of negotiations. This article summarizes the key elements of the planned agreement and outlines the next steps toward its entry into force.