News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Dear readers, this is the last Week in Brussels column before our summer recess. The next Week in Brussels column will appear on 30 August 2019. We will publish very sparingly over the next two weeks due to the general recess period in relevant European and international trade institutions. Here …
French lawmakers voted in favour of ratifying CETA, the landmark trade and investment agreement the EU clinched with Canada almost three years ago, kickstarting a ratification process that could still prove lengthy and politically fraught.
The European Parliament has voted for Ursula von der Leyen to lead the next European Commission. The German nominee obtained support from a narrow majority of nine MEPs.
The international trade committee of the European Parliament will be led by experienced MEPs with a stake in continuity in current European Union trade policy. Even if the Green group is not in the management this term, the signs are that advocates of a stronger focus on labour, and in …
There will plenty of new faces in the new international trade committee in the European Parliament, whose configuration was agreed late last night in Strasbourg.
The European Commission no longer seems to trust global norms, fora or rule-making negotiations to uphold its interests in digital, competition, industry and trade policy. In fact many norms hardly exist and won’t likely emerge so quickly. The EU’s executive arm has been rethinking its policy toolkit and is seeking …
Sabine Weyand is to become next Director General for Trade, replacing the Frenchman Jean-Luc Demarty. Ms Weyand will lead the European Union’s trade bureaucracy after almost three years in a strategic post as deputy to the European Commission’s Article 50 Task force, the team that negotiated a ‘withdrawal agreement’ with …
Will the EU make its trade policy greener in the coming years? If anything, the politics of green trade will become messier, reckons Iana Dreyer.
This column was written with input from Chris Horseman. This has been an eventful week, with EU-US trade frictions, e-commerce, Mercosur, the Energy Charter Treaty, Australia and New Zealand, and WTO fish talks featuring high on the agenda. Below are other notable developments. Andean countries safeguard commodities exports to UK …
One gets many ‘Out of Office’ messages these days: between Easter and the many coming holidays in May, including this week’s May Day, a large number of people take time off from work. Yet the policy churn continues. Below are the three main items to watch in EU trade this …
