The executive body of the European Union (EU) laid out a new emergency tool to secure supply chains in times of crisis that would give it sweeping new powers to block member countries from adopting restrictions to the free movement of crisis-relevant goods or force businesses to break contracts and stockpile key products.
Details of the plan—called the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI)—were announced on Sept. 19 by the European Commission (EC), which would be granted the power to declare an emergency and trigger a range of market interventions.
