The European Commission is on a mission to calm down the European Parliament’s urge to complicate its proposed foreign subsidies regulation.
EU trade policies
Malmström: We need to nurture our trade relationships with allies
Former EU trade commissioner and non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics Cecilia Malmström sat down with Borderlex’s Rob Francis and Iana Dreyer to discuss some of the latest shifts in European Union trade policy. Below, excerpts from the conversation on the EU’s shift to ‘open strategic …
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 …
Macron wades into commercial policy debate in European Parliament
French president Emmanuel Macron today called on the European institutions to publish and finalise future legislation on corporate due diligence for sustainability purposes and the planned ban on products made with forced labour “as soon as possible”. During a lengthy and wide-ranging address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the …
Foreign subsidies regulation: Hansen report seeks to minimise international friction
The rapporteur on the coming new EU legislation aimed at tackling distortive foreign subsidies Christophe Hansen presented his draft report on Thursday (13 January) at a hearing that included French trade minister Franck Riester. The rapporteur wants to go fast. He also tabled amendments that seek to minimise international frictions …
Blog: Is the EU’s FTA agenda unfreezing?
Is the French government finally realising that blocking progress in bilateral trade agreements might not help its much-touted ‘strategic autonomy’ and supply chain resilience agenda that defines the country’s current rotating EU Council presidency?
GSP: Hautala report calls for streamlined benefit withdrawal procedures
The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the European Commission’s revision of its Generalised Scheme of Preferences is proposing a one-year ‘enhanced engagement’ process for the EU to engage with a beneficiary country which is at risk of having its preferential tariffs withdrawn. In her report amending the proposal, Finnish Green MEP Heidi …
Week in Brussels: French presidency programme, Cross Channel food trade, Lithuania, Turkey
The trade policy world was comparatively quiet in Brussels as the Christmas break continued for many in the EU bubble in this first week of January 2022. More on what happened this week in EU trade by Rob Francis and Iana Dreyer below.
Perspectives: The coming French-German imprint on EU trade policy
The European Union’s new, increasingly assertive, trade policy is now fully coming together with the formation of a new German coalition government and the upcoming French presidency of the Council. Paris and Berlin share many similarities in their approach to this EU policy are but are likely to differ in …
