The European Commission (EC) on Thursday announced measures designed to strengthen the regulation of commodities markets, curtail price speculation, and to ensure that firms that are active in these markets are regulated appropriately.

The new rules, which will take effect in January 2018, include new regulatory standards for determining “position limits,” and measures to regulate large, non-financial firms that trade a large amount of commodity derivatives (such as energy and agricultural firms) under the same rules as financial firms.

“Today’s rules will contribute to better functioning commodities markets that work for the real economy while helping to deal with some of the problems we saw in the financial crisis,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union, EC, in a statement.

“We have listened to the concerns raised by the European Parliament and provided for stricter position limit standards whilst at the same time seeking to avoid unintended consequences,” Dombrovskis added.