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After frying frites, bitterballen, churros or arancini, many people don’t think twice about disposing of used cooking oil. Yet one litre of waste oil can contaminate one million litres of water, according to the European Commission. At Cargill’s facility in the port of Ghent, Belgium, used cooking oil and other residual oils and fats are treated as raw materials, cleaned and converted into biodiesel for trucks and ships. This puts circularity into practice on an industrial scale at one of Europe’s largest facilities of its kind. Since production began, Ghent’s biodiesel is estimated to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1,188,000 tonnes compared with fossil diesel, equivalent to taking about 550,000 cars off the road for a year. Read the full story on Invested in Europe.

The reform of the Union Customs Code changes who is treated as the ‘importer’ when a non-EU company uses an indirect customs representative. That creates a problem under the EU VAT Directive, which links import VAT deduction to being identified as the importer or consignee. In practice, the non-EU company may no longer meet that requirement, while the customs representative may not qualify for the deduction either.

That could leave import VAT irrecoverable and create uncertainty for businesses using established import models. The Commission should ensure that the non-EU principal can still be identified in customs data for VAT purposes and fix the mismatch between the UCC and the VAT Directive.

Learn more about what changes are needed to keep import VAT deductibility workable under the new customs framework.

On Wednesday, 2 September 2026, Malte Lohan, CEO, AmCham EU met with Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, Mexican Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg, for an introductory meeting to exchange views on the transatlantic business relationship. Discussions focused on opportunities to deepen EU–Mexico economic ties following the signature of the Modernised Global Agreement and interim trade agreement earlier this year. AmCham EU looks forward to continued engagement with Ambassador Moctezuma and to supporting closer EU–Mexico economic cooperation.