News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, April 25, 2025
The European Parliament wants to enact legislation on the screening of foreign takeovers swiftly, before EU institutions shut down in the early months of next year ahead of European elections. This is why the committee on international trade voted for anticipated inter-institutional – or ‘trilogue’ – negotiations with the Council …
This week, the European Parliament’s international trade committee debated the 474 amendments tabled by MEPs on the EU’s investment screening legislation. Our analysis of the amendments and of the debate reveals there are eight key dividing lines in the EU over the proposal tabled by the European Commission last autumn. …
It was another packed week in trade, with the trans-Atlantic relationship on top of everyone’s mind. We’ve covered some of it here, as well as developments in the run-up to the launch of EU-Australia and EU-New Zealand free trade talks. There’s been a lot of movement between the EU and …
In Brussels, there is a lot of movement behind the scenes to try and finalise trade agreements with Mexico, Mercosur and Japan. Investment screening is climbing the policy priority list. The EU lost a case in the World Trade Organization against Indonesia over dumping duties it applies against palm …
Trade policy isn’t the most prominent priority of Bulgaria, the Balkan country in charge of presiding the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council. Sofia has put the onus on youth, security, digital and connectivity in the Western Balkans. Trade elicits only a few very general paragraphs in Sofia’s 16-page …
The European Parliament endorsed by a majority of 571 votes a report adopted by the international trade committee last November on an ongoing overhaul of the EU’s export control legislation. The EU’s regime will move away from focusing exclusively on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. It will be …
The European Parliament will once again examine in plenary a compromise text on ‘dual-use’ export control reached in the international trade committee on Thursday, before it is sent back to the European Commission and member states. On 23 October, MEPs mainly from the centre-right ultimately refused to send the final …
In early September 2017, the European Commission released a draft regulation that provides a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments for national security reasons. These were debated at the European Parliament on Monday (26 September 2017). The EU plans provide for a general framework of exchange of …
The European Parliament has started working on EU plans to review its export control legislation. The legislative process initiated can be expect to be messy as it significantly extends the scope of situations to which exports controls of so-called dual-use technologies could apply. The move puts the EU on …
The Commission has tabled a final regulatory proposal to update its current so-called ‘dual-use’ export legislation. The rules aim to avoid that high tech industrial products are exported to governments or sold to organisations that could misuse the products to produce weapons of mass destruction, commit terrorist acts, or engage in human rights violations. The …
