In a joint letter sent to president elect Emmanuel Macron on 9 May 2017, four leading French business organisations have asked the new dweller in the Elysée Palace in Paris for a new “European pact”. The letter signed by Medef, AFEP – the big business organisation, and the industrial group …
Internal EU politics
Tersen: France’s Macron will want ‘fairness’, sustainability in EU trade deals
Denis Tersen, a senior civil servant and trade policy veteran of France, tells Borderlex what to expect from the French approach to trade policy under its new president Emmanuel Macron. Tersen also offers suggestions to ensure trade policy gains back its legitimacy in the European public’s distrustful eye. …
France: Macron’s free trade stance to come with “conditions”
Trade policy was not a central topic in the campaign in the run-up to the first round of French presidential elections on Sunday (23 April) which propelled 39-old Emmanuel Macron to first place, ahead of the populist Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen. What would France’s approach be to the EU’s trade policy under Macron …
In brief: French constitutional court postpones CETA decision
France’s constitutional council has decided to postpone its decision on the compatibility of the EU Canadian trade pact CETA with the French constitution. France’s court was seized one month ago by more than 100 French MPs, with the legal support of three NGOs: Foodwatch Europe, the Institut Veblen and the …
Member states call for EU trade push
The Council conclusions adopted by 27 member states in the middle of the night of Thursday to Friday (9/10 March 2017) indicate the direction of travel the member states want the EU to take on trade policy in the coming months: forward. The member states say that the recent …
Opinion: EU Trump-era FTA-turbo-charge rings hollow
Current Brussels talk about turbo-charging bilateral free trade negotiations rings hollow. In 2017, less is more, opines Iana Dreyer. EU member state trade ministers met in sunny Valletta, the capital of the Mediterranean island of Malta, the country that holds the rotating presidency, on Friday (3 March 2017). The …
Trade powers central in Commission view of EU future
Trade policy is an important aspect of the EU Commission’s freshly released White Paper on the future of Europe. In the Commission’s vision, a revamped EU would also be a more effective trade agreement negotiator. The Juncker Commission has put forward this vision for the future of the crisis-stricken European block …
MEPs see scope for change in EU trade negotiation positions post Brexit
The European Parliament’s trade committee has undertaken a first appraisal of the possible effects of the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU on the EU’s common commercial policy. MEPs see some changes ahead in the politics of the EU27 bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations and also want the EU to …
French constitutional court seized on CETA – to rule within one month
More than one hundred French MPs called on the constitutional court on Wednesday (22 February 2017) in Paris to rule on the compatibility of the EU Canada agreement CETA with France’s constitutional order. The French court has one month to decide on the case. An initial cursory legal analysis of the …
ECJ gives Commission exclusive power to sign copyright pact under the EU’s commercial policy
This week, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) opined that the EU is exclusively competent to conclude the 2009 Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. Though the matter of the treaty itself is non commercial, the court ruled …
