BRUSSELS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission announced on Friday its decision not to extend trade defense measures on solar panels from China after rejecting the European Union (EU) industry's request for an expiry review investigation.

"After having been in place for almost five years, the EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on solar panels from China will expire at midnight on Monday 3rd September," the European Commission said in a statement.

This decision takes into account the needs of both producers and those using or importing solar panels and the EU's new renewable energy targets. And it was "in the best interests of the EU as a whole" to let the measures lapse, the Commission said.

The EU first imposed definitive anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures in December 2013 for a period of two years. These were then renewed in March 2017 for a period of 18 months only in order to find a balance between the interests of users, importers and EU producers of solar panels, as opposed to the usual five years.

The Commission observed that the market situation has not changed to the extent that this would justify a further extension of the measures now beyond the scheduled 18 months. It therefore rejected the EU industry's request for an expiry review investigation.