News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
The centre-left S&D group, led by the chairman of the international trade committee, Bernd Lange, is in a renewed push for the EU to make the labour and environment provisions in its free trade agreements more enforceable, namely through potential commercial sanctions. The European Commission continues to resist, but is …
The EU and Chile are launching formal talks to upgrade their 2002 Association Agreement this week in Santiago. For both parties, the initiative has greater ‘geostrategic’ than actual economic significance, although for Chile in particular, economics also matter. Diversification and geostrategy Chile is traditionally the leading free …
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic party CDU and her Bavarian counterpart, the CSU, reached an initial agreement on broad principles with the Social Democratic SPD party late last week aimed at forming a government following elections in September 2017. The 28-page document, which ends several weeks of scoping …
This week was relatively calm in the Brussels policy world. The entire European Commission team flew to Sofia feting Bulgaria as it took over the EU presidency for the next six months, lavishing praise and money on the bloc’s poorest country. Technocrat trade negotiators are far away in Mexico trying to hammer …
The European Commission published the bulk of the text of the EU Japan Economic Partnership Agreement in early December last year. Below some highlights of the pact and some comments – result of your truly’s Christmas break reading. The deal favours significantly EU exporters and is relatively unambitious in services.
British MPs voted down two attempts by Labour frontbenchers to stop legislation on a new customs regime and trade policy powers to wind their way through Parliament in London. This comes despite a vigorous debate on both the content and constitutional arrangements around trade policy in Britain post-Brexit. On …
Welcome back to our A week in Brussels Friday column! Happy New Year! The first week of the year is generally quiet when it comes to policy and trade in Brussels and elsewhere. This week hasn’t been different. But here, a few useful things garnered over the break for …
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 …
It’s been a packed week for trade in Brussels as everyone prepares to break for Christmas. The trade talks with Mexico did not conclude successfully, and the European Commission is still wrangling over data flows in free trade agreements. The commission came up with a tough transition offer for …
There will be no modernised trade deal with Mexico for Christmas. Despite having personally spent three days in Brussels, economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo hasnt managed to break the deadlock over some of the most contentious outstanding issues in the negotiations, namely geographical indications and investment protection. The modernisation of …
