Unrivalled coverage of European trade policy
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Happy New Year, dear subscribers! The year 2018 will offer a very narrow window of opportunity to bring key EU trade policy files forward. On the EU’s plate this year: finalise trade negotiations with Mexico and Mercosur, get key trade agreements with Singapore, Vietnam and Japan through the European …
The EU and Mercosur are trying hard to get their deal trade done in the coming weeks. The atmosphere among negotiators and in the EU is frenetic as the 31st round of negotiations opens in Brussels on Wednesday. Tensions are running high as competing interests between the parties and …
The European Parliament’s trade committee endorsed a report initiated by Marietje Schaake calling for an EU digital trade strategy and for expediting policies to secure free flows of data across borders. The Schaake report makes recommendations to policymakers on e-commerce, net neutrality and online consumer protection, among others. The …
Today EU member states gathered around the Commission to take stock of various free trade agreement files. Here a run through what we have gathered at the foreign affairs Council and during the past week in Brussels. EU Mercosur and EU Mexico free trade negotiations “We are now entering …
The European Commission released a report on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, a pot of public money set up ten years ago to help workers in distressed sectors retrain and find new jobs. The press announcement states proudly that this report proves the fund’s “effectiveness”. In 2015 and 2016, …
The French government announced an ‘action plan’ on the EU Canada CETA agreement on Wednesday (25 October 2017). A deep dive into the 20-page document reveals how Macron’s government is manoeuvring to make highly contested trade agreements back home palatable to his party base and the electorate when it puts …
The French government plans to put CETA to ratification in its national assembly in the second half of 2018. In the meantime Paris will work on means to introduce what it termed an “environmental veto” on investor-state disputes that could jeopardise climate policies, ministers announced today. The EU Canada …
The heads of EU governments who met on Thursday and Friday (19 and 20 October 2017) in Brussels agreed on a working agenda for the next two years and on Britain’s departure from the EU. Significant policy signals were sent on crucial trade policy files, namely free trade negotiations with …
Trade ministers gathering informally in Brussels on Friday (13 October 2017) discussed the announcements by Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in his September State of the Union speech: new free trade agreements, the separation of negotiating tracks for EU-only trade agreements and ‘mixed’ investment agreements, the publication of member state trade …
The EU Commission has significantly increased transparency in its trade policy in recent years, not least in response to the controversy over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Niels Gheyle and Ferdi De Ville explain why these moves will not likely satisfy civil society groups, although they give the Commission …
