News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, July 29, 2021
The European Commission is seeking to convince sceptics on both sides of the debate on the future of the Energy Charter Treaty that negotiations to ‘modernise’ the body of rules that underpin it are making progress. And it seems that the negotiation process launched in 2020 is indeed gradually moving …
The European Union and Japan held a bilateral summit on Thursday (27 May 2021), which ostensibly aimed to give new impetus to an already rich and diverse economic and political relationship.
The Energy Charter Treaty needs to make a success of its ongoing modernisation process in the coming five years, writes Urban Rusnák.
As widely anticipated, the European Union extended on Thursday its export authorisation scheme for COVID-19 vaccines produced by firms with a procurement contract from the EU until the end of June 2021. The move comes amidst controversies over who among the continental EU and the ‘Anglos’ are greater vaccine nationalists. …
The European Court of Justice’s Advocate General Szpunar opined that the investor-state arbitration system under the Energy Charter Treaty is not applicable within the European Union. This will further increase the pressure on the ongoing ECT modernisation process and might very well herald the end of the ECT within the EU.
It’s been an eventful week, dominated by the new EU trade strategy or Trade Policy Review. Below, other important developments…
This week has seen two ‘strategic’ initiatives: the launch of a new paper on EU-US relations and the upgrading of EU-ASEAN relations post RCEP. Here other developments of potential interest. Dombrovksis talks to French Senate – Paris CETA ratification date unclear Nobody knows yet when the French government will put …
State of play in and analysis of a renegotiation of a Eurasian energy trade and investment treaty – a process where not everything is always at it seems. By Sarah Anne Aarup and Iana Dreyer.
Carbon border adjustment – Lange prefers ETS extension The German chemical industry association VCI held a webinar this week on trade policy and climate change. International trade committee chair Bernd Lange was a speaker. Whether this is an indication of what is to come as the EU prepares to prepare …
In an interview with Borderlex, the Energy Charter Treaty’s secretary-general Urban Rusnák said: “In one or two years I expect to have a new Energy Charter Treaty as complement to the Paris climate agreement.“
