European Union seeks emergency powers to prevent supply-chain crisis

Companies based in Europe could be forced to prioritise production of key products and stockpile goods under draft EU rules announced that would give the European Commission emergency powers to tackle supply crises.

The proposed Single Market Emergency Instrument comes in response to supply bottlenecks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The proposal is expected to face strong pushback from businesses and some EU countries.
 

The draft rules empower the Commission to order EU states to reorganise supply chains and increase supplies of crisis-relevant goods as quickly as possible, including expanding or repurposing existing production capacities or setting up new ones and placing crisis-relevant goods on the market.