Site
Introduce the desk
EU law in human terms: who it hits, when it applies, and what to do. Not legal advice.
In force and phasing in
The EU sorts AI by how much harm it could do — banning a few uses, tightly watching high-risk ones, and asking chatbots to be honest about being machines.
Very large platforms have to explain their feeds, take illegal content seriously, and stop dark patterns — without making every comment section a courtroom.
A handful of giant tech firms (called gatekeepers) cannot favor their own apps, lock you in, or block rivals from talking to their users.
Big companies must publish audited numbers on climate, workers, and supply chains — not just a glossy sustainability brochure.
If you import carbon-heavy goods like steel or cement into the EU, you start paying a carbon price similar to what EU factories already pay.
Countries must actually restore damaged ecosystems — peatlands, rivers, forests, pollinator habitats — not just protect a few parks on a map.
Less wrapping, more reuse, and packaging that can actually be recycled — including bans on some single-use formats.
Coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, cattle, rubber, wood — if it grew on land deforested after 2020, it should not be sold in the EU.
More companies that keep society running — energy, food, health, digital — must lock their networks properly and report serious incidents.
If a connected product generates data — a tractor, a car, a factory sensor — you should be able to get that data and share it with a repair shop of your choice.
Anyone using your personal data needs a lawful reason, has to be clear about it, and you can ask to see, fix, or delete much of it.
New buildings must be zero-emission, and the worst-performing existing ones have to be upgraded over time — with solar on many roofs.
Banks, insurers and investment firms — and the ICT firms they lean on — must be able to take a cyber hit and keep running, with contracts, tests and an EU-level look at critical tech vendors.
Issuing a token or running a crypto exchange in the EU now looks like financial regulation: white papers, authorisation, reserve rules for stablecoins, and a ban on pretending a token is risk-free.
Almost every physical product on the EU market will, over time, need a durability, repair and recycled-content story — and a Digital Product Passport that follows the item.
EV, industrial and portable batteries sold in the EU need carbon footprints, recycled content, due diligence on raw materials, and a passport — plus collection and recycling that actually happens.
Anything sold to consumers in the EU — including via a marketplace and including from outside the Union — must be safe, traceable, and recallable, with a responsible economic operator in the EU.
Phones, computers, payment terminals, e-commerce, banking services, e-books and some transport ticketing must be usable by people with disabilities — by design, not by a hidden PDF.
If a non-EU state has funded you, buying an EU company or bidding on a big public contract can trigger a Commission filing — and remedies or a block if the subsidy distorts the market.
A dictionary of which economic activities count as environmentally sustainable — used in CSRD reports, funds, and green bonds — not a ban on everything else.
Companies above a headcount must run a safe internal reporting channel for breaches of Union law — and they may not retaliate against the person who used it.
Rules for sharing data that is not a free-for-all: public-sector reuse, trusted data intermediaries, and altruism — with a ban on using the intermediary hat to exploit the data.
A European digital identity wallet: you prove who you are — and only the attribute needed — to public services and to many private relying parties, without a new password zoo.
Your health data should follow you across the Union for care, and — with safeguards — be reusable for research and policy, under a new set of health-data access bodies.
Manufacturers of listed goods (phones, washers, TVs…) must offer repair beyond the legal guarantee, at a reasonable price, and sellers must mention repair before they push replacement.
No data, no market: chemicals manufactured or imported at a tonne or more need a registration, and the most harmful ones can be restricted or need an authorisation to stay.
The Union sets capacity benchmarks for strategic raw materials — mine, process, recycle — and a fast track for strategic projects, so batteries and grids are not a single-country bet.
A manufacturing-capacity file for net-zero tech (solar, wind, batteries, heat pumps, electrolysers…): faster permits, strategic projects, and public-procurement criteria that are not only price.
The Union does not set a euro amount. It pushes statutory minima to be adequate and collective bargaining to cover more people — after the Court struck the mandatory wage-setting criteria.
Energy efficiency as a legal duty: Union and national savings targets, public-sector renovation, and energy-management obligations for large energy consumers.
A list of throwaway plastic items is banned or restricted, bottles need recycled content and caps that stay attached, and producers pay for the litter.
Coming
Staggered from 2027 for the largest groups
Main product duties from late 2027
Member states must apply it from June 2026
Applies from 14 December 2027
Member States apply from 9 December 2026
Green-transition consumer rules
Member States apply from 27 September 2026
Member States must apply from 2 December 2026
Applies from 10 July 2027 (with a new AML Authority already standing up)
Applies from 20 January 2027, replacing the 2006 Directive
Want auto-posting of official news? That needs your X developer app and posting permission — keys stay on your side, not in this site. Until then, this pack is the honest path.