News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Much is in flux in the European Union’s geostrategic – hence also trade policy – positioning following the war in Ukraine. A lot will also depend on how China positions itself on this matter in the coming weeks and months. But diversification of trade relationships is now on top of …
The European Union is preparing to impose a significant new package of trade sanctions against Russia following recent revelations of war crimes perpetrated by its army in areas where it had retreated in Ukraine in order to redeploy its forces to the east of the country.
Today’s widely anticipated EU-China summit held via videoconference mainly offered a channel of direct communication between the leaders of the Council and the European Commission on the one hand and China’s president and vice-premier on the other, amidst rising political rifts between the two sides that have been building up …
European Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis was called to speak in today’s plenary session in parliament to update MEPs on the state of play in ongoing talks to ‘modernise’ the Energy Charter Treaty.
The European Parliament’s international trade committee has begun work on plans to negotiate a trade, an investment protection and a geographical indications agreement between the European Union. This comes as the European Commission and the Indian government are preparing the ground to start working on concrete legal treaty text proposals …
The details of the trade restrictions announced last Friday on Russia as part of a fourth round of sanctions adopted by Brussels in response to Moscow’s military attack on Ukraine were finally released on Tuesday evening. These involve a ban on steel imports and export restrictions on luxury items. They …
Fourteen members of the World Trade Organization, counting the European Union as one, have formally announced that they were considering no longer offering the Russian Federation the most-favoured-nation rights it is normally entitled to as a member of the international organisation.
The journey of the new EU foreign subsidies regulation through the European Parliament promises to be a rocky but not impossible one as key dividing lines among political groups emerge over critical aspects of the new legislation.
In a few weeks or months the European Union will have a new regulation in place that aims at fostering ‘reciprocity’ in public procurement markets. French minister for trade Franck Riester, who led trilogue talks on behalf of the French presidency of the Council, announced triumphantly that, with the political …
The European Union formally announced a long-awaited decision to suspend Russia’s most-favoured nation trading rights within the World Trade Organization.
