The Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2026/1724 on 13 July 2026, amending Regulation (EU) 2023/2147, the Sudan restrictive-measures regime in force since 9 October 2023. It was published in the Official Journal on 14 July 2026 and entered into force on 15 July 2026. The amended regime prohibits the purchase, import and transfer of gold originating in Sudan, and the sale, supply, transfer and export of mercury and cyanide to Sudan. Both prohibitions extend to related services, including technical assistance, brokering services and financial assistance.
A cast or minted bar carries a refiner mark, a stated fineness and a serial number, and none of the three records where the material was mined. The prohibition attaches to origin, and origin is a determination made from documents held by the parties that moved the metal. That determination already sits upstream with the refiner: producers on the LBMA Good Delivery List operate under the LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, both of which require documented country-of-origin sourcing and exclusion of material where the risk is identified. Regulation (EU) 2026/1724 turns that due-diligence obligation into a prohibition binding from 15 July 2026.
Brokering, technical assistance and financing of a prohibited transaction are caught on the same terms as the transaction itself. An EU-established intermediary, bank, insurer or freight agent is therefore inside scope on a consignment that never enters EU customs territory. Regulation (EU) 2023/2147 binds nationals of Member States wherever they are, entities incorporated under the law of a Member State, and any business done in whole or in part within the Union, so eligibility under the measure follows the counterparty and the service provider and not the location of the vault.
Sanctions screening at intake now has to answer the origin question with evidence — the refiner declaration, the weight list and assay chain behind the bars, and the export record for the material — and fineness or Good Delivery status does not answer it. The mercury and cyanide measure runs the other way, as an export control on extraction inputs, and applies to suppliers of those chemicals rather than to holders of refined metal.
Regulation (EU) 2026/1724 amends the Sudan regime and nothing else. Origin assurance for refined bullion is held by the LBMA through the Good Delivery List and the Responsible Gold Guidance, and enforcement of the prohibitions sits with the competent authorities of the Member States.