Italy's proposal to cap natural gas prices in Europe is garnering greater support with countries viewing it as the only solution to rising oil costs, Italian Energy Minister Roberto Cingolani said, Bloomberg reported. Italy suggested placing a limit on the price of gas imports from Russia to slow inflation, but Germany, among other countries, has been reluctant to take up the plan, Bloomberg said June 20. Cingolani said a price cap "seems to be the only sustainable solution," with the move skirting the risk of "someone waking up some morning" and putting forward "a crazy gas-price level." Other measures under consideration include separating prices for gas-fired power from renewable energy prices and generating greater electricity from coal-fueled plants, Cingolani said. Germany has announced plans to reboot coal-fired power stations to drop the reliance on Russian gas.

The European Council on June 17 adopted new rules to promote reciprocity in accessing public procurement markets across the globe. The new public procurement instrument will give the European Commission investigative powers and allow it to take up measures in the EU's interest, the council said.

Ukrainian grain exporters have developed a new export route via the Baltic Sea to get their product out amid Russia's invasion, Bloomberg reported. With ports on the Black Sea no longer an option for the exporters, grain producers have looked to land routes, shipping the product via railway, road and river to other European countries. According to a spokesperson from the Spanish company Puerto A Coruna, the first Ukrainian corn shipment sent via Romania was received in April, and now Spain has received its shipment from Poland, with the vessel carrying 18,000 tons of corn shipped via trucks in Ukraine.

The U.K.'s Department for International Trade updated its guidance on duty suspensions and tariff quotas. The updated guidance walks traders through the duty suspension application process for applications made in the 2021 applications window.

The U.K. amended or corrected a number of entries under several of its sanctions regimes. Under the Syria sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the entries for Fares Chehabi, president of the Aleppo Chamber of Industry; Khodr Ali Taher, director of Ella Towers; and the Syrian Petroleum Company. OFSI then corrected the entry for Adnan Slakho, former minister for industry. Under the Libya sanctions list, OFSI amended the entry for Khalifa Ghwell, defense minister of the General National Congress. Under the Iran (Human Rights) sanctions list, OFSI amended seven entries. This listings for Ali Khalili, Ali-Akbar Yasaghi, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Mortez Tamaddon, Mostafa Bozorgnia, Moussa Khalilollahi and Toraj Kazemi were updated, and all of the individuals remain subject to an asset freeze. Four entries under the Chemical Weapons sanctions regime were amended: the agency updated the listings for Vladimir Stephanovich Alexseyev, first deputy head of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency; Vladimir Mikhailovich Bogdanov, former director of the Criminalistics Institute and head of the FSB (Federal Security Service) Special Technology Center; Kirill Vasilyev, director of the Criminalistics Institute at the FSB; and Alexei Semenovich Sedov, head of the FSB 2nd Service. All are believed to have been involved in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

The U.K. and Norway agreed to cooperate on easing the barriers that could stem from health certificates for seafood imported into the U.K., Norway's fisheries ministry said in a statement June 15. The U.K. warned it will require such certificates for seafood from European Economic Area countries. Norwegian Minister for Fisheries and Ocean Policy Bjornar Selnes Skjaeran and British Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Victoria Prentis met in London and agreed that Norwegian and British authorities will work to find ways to "reduce the burden imposed on the industry," according to an unofficial translation.

The U.K. rolled out legislation June 13 that would give Britain the power to unilaterally rewrite most of the Northern Ireland Protocol, overriding the Brexit deal signed with the EU. The protocol kept Ireland in the EU single market post-Brexit and set up a customs border with mainland U.K. The new law would allow ministers to institute new rules on customs checks, tax and arbitration.

The U.K.'s Department of International Trade released guidance on how to comply with the myriad of trade restrictions and sanctions that apply to British businesses that trade with Russia. The guidance covers sectoral sanctions, export and import bans and licensing, tariffs on Russian and Belarusian goods, financial sanctions and transport sanctions.

A U.K. court ordered Alexander George, a U.K. citizen and former company boss, to pay over $851,000 relating to export control violations, Revenue & Customs announced. George was convicted in 2018 of violating U.K. export controls by exporting fighter jet parts to Iran and sentenced to two and a half years in prison over the illicit scheme. If the defendant fails to pay the court-ordered penalty on time, he will see another three months in prison, Revenue & Customs said, with the fine still due.

A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with a series of sanctions decisions implemented by the bloc relating to Russia and Belarus' invasion of Ukraine and to ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida, the European Council announced. Groups of countries aligned with five recent sanctions moves relating to the war in Ukraine and one recent move over ISIL and al-Qaida.