The outcome of the latest round of negotiations towards the modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty reveals that there will be sufficient flexibility to allow natural gas to remain in place for the coming years as an energy source in Europe.
Sectors
Procurement reciprocity legislation seen as ripe for conclusion in coming months
The Council and the European Parliament are confident that the new regulation on an International Procurement Instrument can be wrapped up politically in the coming months, with some people close to the file even hoping there could be a breakthrough in ‘trilogue’ as early as March – although the few …
Week in Brussels : Hong Kong, G7 climate club, US, Canada
The EU trade policy machinery is definitely back in action after a slow-ish start to the year. Here some selected updates on developments this week by Iana Dreyer and Rob Francis.
Semiconductors: Von der Leyen promises “diversification among like-minded partners”
Plans towards a European Chips Act are maturing. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a new regulation mirroring similarly named recent United States legislation will be tabled as soon as early February. Brussels’ move in the semiconductor sector heralds a much more politically controlled approach to supply chain …
EU ‘reciprocity’ push for agriculture production standards moves up one gear
France will table a position paper to feed-in to an upcoming European Commission report on applying EU health and environmental production standards to imported products.
Comment: EU and Singapore ready to take partnership to the next level
Just two years after the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement entered into force, the EU and Singapore are ready to take our economic cooperation to the next level by pursuing a comprehensive digital partnership, write European Commission executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovksis and Singapore’s minister in charge of trade S. Iswaran.
CBAM: Parliament rapporteur seeks sweeping changes to original proposal
The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the proposed EU carbon border adjustment mechanism is insisting that only countries with “explicit carbon pricing policies” be exempt from the scheme, which is expected to start operation on 1 January next year. This is only one of a series of measures put forward that …
Week in Brussels: Russia WTO dispute now on, steel safeguard revision, aluminium
Borderlex will be in recess as of tomorrow (22 December) for about a fortnight due to the festive season. So we are fast-forwarding our usual Friday Week in Brussels column for you…
Week in Brussels: Angola, Ghana, ECT, Chinese subsidies in steel wind towers and glass fiber
That was a big week in EU policy. There was an intense European Parliament plenary session during which legislation that will affect trade policy and transatlantic or EU China relations, namely the Digital Markets and Digital Services act as well as the International Procurement Instrument. But there have been other …
MEPs adopt International Procurement Instrument position
Members of the European Parliament adopted its second report on the EU’s planned International Procurement Instrument by a very solid majority of 590 in favour. The vote gives a mandate to the legislature to begin talks with the Council – i.e. the member states – and the European Commission to …
