News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled today that negotiations to upgrade the so-called Lisbon Agreement, an international treaty on the protection of geographical indications dating back to 1958, and overseen by the World Intellectual Protection Organization, are to be led under the EU’s exclusive competence as part …
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 …
A new paper by the Polish international affairs think tank PISM criticises the EU’s inconsistent way of dealing with the consequences of a recent Court of Justice ruling on a 2012 agriculture trade agreement with Morocco that it applied to products from Western Sahara. The EU should come clean on this issue …
The silent turf war between the EU Commission and intra-EU investor-state arbitral tribunals and member states that back the bilateral investment treates – BITs – that underpin them is continuing. But resolution of the conflict will likely need to wait until 2018. A Borderlex long-read.
The EU Singapore FTA is the first practical test case for the termination of bilateral investment treaties signed by the European countries before 2009 – the year of entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Twelve member states have BITs in place with Singapore. These treaties cover investment protection and investor-state dispute settlement. …
In an opinion issued ahead of an expected Court of Justice ruling regarding the competences accruing to the EU and the member states respectively as to the EU Singapore free trade agreement, a pact concluded in 2013, the Advocate General has confirmed that the deal covers issues that are both …
The Court of Justice of the EU supported the Council in its appeal to a December 2015 tribunal ruling that annulled a 2012 trade agreement between the EU and Morocco liberalising trade in agriculture and fisheries. The case was brought by the Polisario Front and brought forward the risk of …
The Belgians are fighting internal tussles over how to follow up on the internal compromise achieved between the federal government, the Flemish regional bodies and the Wallonians ahead of the signature of the EU Canada trade pact CETA early November this year. Charles Michel has tabled a motion in …
Horia Ciurtin walks us through the dynamics unleashed by an ongoing divisive Commission crackdown on intra-EU bilateral investment treaties.
A detailed report on the EU Law Analysis blog of the first hearing in the Court of Justice of the EU ahead of an eagerly anticipated legal opinion regarding the scope of the EU’s exclusive competence to conclude its 2013 free trade agreement with Singapore reveals that member state bilateral …
