Company almost attempted to restrict European exclusive circle (7)
I believe the answer is:
coterie
'exclusive circle' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'company almost attempted to restrict european' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'attempted' becomes 'tried' ('try' can be a synonym of 'attempt').
'to restrict' indicates putting letters inside.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'tried' with its final letter taken away is 'trie'.
'trie' going around 'e' is 'terie'.
'co'+'terie'='COTERIE'
(Other definitions for coterie that I've seen before include "Small exclusive group of people" , "Exclusive social circle" , "Literary circle" , "Small exclusive group of friends" , "Select group" .)