The European Parliament’s approval of tighter steel-import limits marks one of the EU’s clearest protectionist moves yet to shield a strategic industry from global overcapacity. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly for a new regime that will cut tariff-free steel imports by 47% from 2024 levels to 18.3 million metric tons per year, with a 50% tariff applying above that ceiling, double the current 25% rate.

The measures are due to take effect on July 1 and will replace the existing steel safeguard framework. The policy is designed to lift capacity utilization in the EU steel sector toward 80%, a level industry officials see as necessary for profitability, investment and decarbonization.

The EU’s shortlist for its first joint critical-minerals stockpile is a concrete sign that Europe is moving from diagnosis to operational security planning. Tungsten, rare earths and gallium are the core candidates, while magnesium, germanium and graphite are also being discussed.

The bloc is also exploring storage options with major ports, including Rotterdam, which would give the stockpile a physical logistics base rather than leaving it as a policy concept. Ten EU countries are involved in planning groups led by Italy, France and Germany.

China’s move to accelerate construction of strategic mineral reserve sites is another sign that Beijing is hardening its resource-security architecture for a more hostile global economy. New implementing regulations issued on Wednesday call for faster construction of strategic mineral reserve facilities, set a minimum five-year term for mineral reserves kept at their source, and require State Council approval before state-reserved strategic mineral resources can be mined or encroached upon.

In effect, China is formalizing a system that protects selected deposits and reserve sites as national-security assets rather than ordinary commercial resources. The policy matters because China is already the world’s largest consumer of most commodities and one of the dominant producers or processors of many critical minerals.

The EU’s provisional agreement to cut import duties on U.S. goods is best understood as a defensive move to preserve transatlantic trade stability rather than as an enthusiastic liberalization package. Under the Turnberry deal reached last July, Brussels agreed to remove tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and grant preferential access to some American farm and seafood products, while Washington would keep most EU goods under a 15% tariff ceiling.

The new legislative compromise between the European Parliament and Council clears the way for the EU to implement its side of the bargain before Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline. The immediate goal is to avoid a much more damaging tariff escalation. Trump had threatened to raise duties on EU goods, including cars, if Brussels failed to deliver its commitments.

Indonesia’s plan to route key commodity exports through a state-linked agency marks one of the most assertive resource-control moves of Prabowo Subianto’s presidency so far. The policy will initially cover palm oil, coal and ferroalloys, with the possibility of adding more commodities every three months.

During a transition period, exporters and buyers will continue normal business, but transactions will be overseen by PT Danantara Sumber Daya, a unit of Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara. After the transition, the state agency will buy from domestic sellers and resell to foreign buyers using exchange-linked benchmark prices.

The European Commission’s approval of €1.3 billion in German state aid for renewable hydrogen is another attempt to keep Europe’s hydrogen ambitions alive at a time when the sector is struggling to move from policy enthusiasm to real investment.

The scheme will support production of renewable hydrogen through the European Hydrogen Bank’s Auctions-as-a-Service model, allowing Germany to use the EU auction platform while adding national money for domestic projects. The program could support up to 1,000 MW of electrolyser capacity and produce as much as 10 million metric tons of hydrogen, avoiding up to 55 million tons of CO2.

Europe’s electric-vehicle market is getting a powerful and badly needed lift from the Iran war’s fuel-price shock. After a disappointing period in which EV adoption lagged automakers’ expectations and forced companies such as Volkswagen and Stellantis to take large writedowns, higher petrol and diesel prices are changing consumer calculations.

New fully electric registrations across 16 major European markets rose 34% year on year in April, while a separate dataset for 15 countries showed 201,541 new BEV registrations, up 34.1%, after an even stronger March.

The European Parliament’s approval of the revised foreign-direct-investment screening rules marks another step in the EU’s shift from open-market reflexes toward economic-security governance. Once the Council gives its final formal approval, the legislation will enter into force 18 months later and require all EU member states to screen foreign investments in sensitive sectors.

Those sectors include defence, dual-use goods, AI, quantum, semiconductors, critical raw materials, aerospace, energy, transport, digital infrastructure, financial entities and even electoral infrastructure such as voter databases and voting systems.