Common Commercial Policy Research Articles

Acknowledging economic realities. The CMEA policy change vis-à-vis the European Community, 1970–3

In the early 1970s, the economic consequences of European Community (EC) policies forced the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) to devise its trade policy vis-à-vis the outside world. With the implementation of its Common Commercial Policy, the EC was about to change the rules and conduct of its foreign trade. The East–West trade boom that took off in the 1960s had created significant commercial links, and substantial dependencies, across the Iron Curtain. The smaller members of the CMEA began to advocate an opening up towards the EC due to their fears of worsening trade prospects caused by the new EC policies. After reconsideration of its allies' commercial needs, the Soviet leadership was pressured to change its mind in favour of a common approach vis-à-vis the EC. This article follows the debate within the CMEA Executive Committee on the socialist countries' dependency on the Western market and on the advisability of opening up to the global market. It relies on official CMEA documents as well as Soviet and German Democratic Republic (GDR) policy-making documents. This article analyses the process of socialist integration in connection with the simultaneous developments taking place in their Western European counterparts, and thereby fills a gap in the historiography of Europe in the Cold War.

Characteristics of the FDI legal regime in the EU law

Once the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on 1 January 2009, the regulatory competences over Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) were transferred from the Member States to the European Union. The change was instituted as a result of a new EU Common Commercial Policy (CCP) framework, which was extended by including the legal treatment of foreign direct investment into the CCP regulatory scope. The effect of this development has a dual paradigm: first, the above change affects the existing legal regime of foreign direct investment in the Member States, which is primarily based on the rules of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) concluded by those States; second, the new CCP format calls for a precise regulation of some open questions and issues pertaining to its implementation in the post-Lisbon FDI regulation process by means of secondary legislation of the Union. The second paradigm is reflected in the effort to address the outstanding issues of the concrete implementation of the new CCP framework in the context of division of competences between the EU and the Member States. This effort resulted in issuing the Draft Regulation establishing transitional arrangements for bilateral investment agreements between Member States and third countries. The directions for future development of the FDI regime in the light of the extended CCP framework are also contained in the case law generated by EU judicial bodies.

An analysis on the EU's FTA strategy by framework of three-level games theory - Focus on the Korea-EU FTA, EU-ASEAN FTA and EU-Japan EPA -

This paper applied the existing two-level game theory and introduced a three-level game theory in order to analyze the FTA negotiation strategy of the EU. This paper hypothesized the characteristics as follows when a regional cooperative union receives exclusive rights to common commercial policy and enters into commercial agreements such as FTAs and extracted propositions.<BR> In conclusion, a regional union which adopts a common commercial policy orients itself toward market liberalization and openness as pursued by multilateralism such as the WTO and induces FTA negotiations in the same way. This verifies well that multilateralism and regionalism which seems to carry out exclusive objectives in the short run works toward one positive goal, which is outlined in GATT Article 24 of allowing territorial application, customs union and free-trade areas. Therefore, the development direction of multilateralism, regionalism, and bilateralism may be found using the analysis in this paper as a foundation. Furthermore, it may be estimated that this may serve as a theoretical foundation for finding an appropriate response strategy by gauging beforehand the FTA negotiation strategies of advanced regional unions.

The European Union explained: institutions, actors, global impact

Preface Acknowledgments List of Acronyms List of Tables Part 1. The Evolution of the European Union 1. Parameters of European Integration 2. Enlargement Part 2. Institutions 3. The European Commission 4. The European Council 5. The Council of Ministers 6. The European Parliament 7. The European Court of Justice 8. Checks and Balances Part 3. Policies 9. The Single Market and Competition 10. Regional Policy and Cohesion 11. The Common Agricultural Policy 12. Economic and Monetary Union 13. Justice and Home Affairs 14. Common Foreign and Security Policy 15. Trade and the Common Commercial Policy 16. Environment Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

The Politiciziationn of the EUUs Common Commercial Policy Approaching the Post-Lockeann Era

The coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty is considered to be an important step in the further development of EU law. The Common Commercial Policy (CCP), long held to be immune from any EU parliamentarian interference, also came within the Parliament's orbit. The EU is faced with an extraordinary challenge. It may be in a position to demonstrate that the "post-Lockean" era has dawned, thereby giving an enormous boost also to the reach and the value of democracy as such. It can therefore be stated that the newly conceived CCP offers enormous opportunities but also contains a series of dangers that should be addressed in a timely and effective fashion. It is up to all the institutions involved, and in particular to European Parliament, to demonstrate that in the "post-Lockean" era democracy in Europe has entered a new stage of advancement. Keywords: Common Commercial Policy (CCP); democracy; EU law; European parliament; Lisbon Treaty; post-Lockean era

EU External Trade and the Treaty of Lisbon: A Revised Neofunctionalist Approach

This article analyses the EU’s Common Commercial Policy (CCP) at the level of Treaty revision and particularly focuses on the last Treaty negotiations that led to the Treaty of Lisbon. The analysis is based on a revised neofunctionalist framework that the author developed in previous work. It draws on the following concepts: (i) functional spillover; (ii) cultivated spillover; (iii) social spillover; and (iv) countervailing forces. Insights into the dynamics and countervailing forces driving Treaty revisions considerably deepen our understanding of the Common Commercial Policy, as EU external trade policy-making is substantially affected by the parameters set by the Treaty. The analysis indicates that the revised neofunctionalist framework can broadly account for the changes of the Common Commercial Policy during the last Treaty revision. It is further suggested that integration in the area of trade policy cannot be explained exclusively by rational choice dynamics, such as utility maximizing actors with fixed preferences, but that socialization through deliberation also needs to be taken into account.

The EU on the Investment Path – Quo Vadis Europe? The Future of EU BITs and Other Investment Agreements

Immediately after the entry-into-force of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009, which inserted FDI into the framework of the existing Common Commercial Policy, the debate focused on the scope of the new investment power and its implications for the practice of EU treaty-making, whether the “new” EU investment power was limited to questions of market access, and whether future EU investment treaties would contain investor-state dispute settlement provisions. Meanwhile the EU Commission has strongly asserted its FDI powers under Article 207(1) TFEU and plans to conclude treaties that cover the entire range of issues currently addressed in EU Member State BITs. In July 2010, the Commission issued a Communication on a European investment policy which has been widely discussed since. This article will discuss the potential shape of future EU investment treaties as far it can be already discerned and it will also address the power struggle between the Member States and the Union.

MULTILATERALISM OR BILATERALISM: THE EU TRADE POLICY IN AN AGE OF THE WTO CRISIS

Abstract. The aim of the study is to analyze the EU trade policy in the age of the World Trade Organization (WTO) crisis. In addition to the WTO membership and a number of international agreements within this organisation, the EU is a party to many bilateral trade agreements and negotiating further. It is the side effect of the protracted negotiations in the WTO under the Doha Development Round. The paper discusses the process of proliferation of bilateral trade agreements in the world economy and its importance for the EU. The article is divided into three parts. Part One identifies the determinants of the WTO crisis. Part Two discusses the process of proliferation of bilateral trade agreements in the world economy. Part Three analyzes the EU trade policy and the system of the EU preferential trade agreements. It also examines trade relations of the EU with the Republic of Korea, India, and the United States of America as an illustration of the new EU trade strategy.Key words: bilateralism, European Union, common commercial policy, World Trade Organisation

EU Development Policy: Constitutional and Legislative Foundation(s)

Abstract The Union’s constitutional regime for development policy has traditionally progressed alongside two parallel tracks. In addition to a general regime for all developing countries, there exists a special regime for African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP countries). The Union’s general development policy originated as a flanking policy within the Common Commercial Policy. This trade-centricity was only relativised by the insertion of an express development aid competence in 1992. The Union’s development cooperation competence can today be found in Article 209 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and allows the Union to adopt legislative acts or conclude international agreements to reduce poverty within developing countries. By contrast, the Union’s special development regime has had a very different constitutional source. It stemmed from the ‘colonial’ association to the Union (qua its Member States) of certain dependent ‘oversees countries and territories’ for which the 1957 Treaty of Rome had provided a limited development competence. Once these countries gained independence in the 1960s, however, the Union had to transfer this special regime to its contractual association competence under Article 217 TFEU. The association regime for ACP countries has itself undergone a number of significant changes with the transition from the Lomé Convention(s) to the Cotonou Agreement.

EU Development Policy: Constitutional and Legislative Foundation(s)

AbstractThe Union’s constitutional regime for development policy has traditionally progressed alongside two parallel tracks. In addition to a general regime for all developing countries, there exists a special regime for African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP countries). The Union’s general development policy originated as a flanking policy within the Common Commercial Policy. This trade-centricity was only relativised by the insertion of an express development aid competence in 1992. The Union’s development cooperation competence can today be found in Article 209 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and allows the Union to adopt legislative acts or conclude international agreements to reduce poverty within developing countries. By contrast, the Union’s special development regime has had a very different constitutional source. It stemmed from the ‘colonial’ association to the Union (quaits Member States) of certain dependent ‘oversees countries and territories’ for which the 1957 Treaty of Rome had provided a limited development competence. Once these countries gained independence in the 1960s, however, the Union had to transfer this special regime to its contractual association competence under Article 217 TFEU. The association regime for ACP countries has itself undergone a number of significant changes with the transition from the Lomé Convention(s) to the Cotonou Agreement.

The regime of international investments within the EC-Chile Association Agreement: towards a possible renegotiation?

This paper aims at analyzing the Association Agreement concluded between the European Community, today European Union, and Chile, as it is believed that it can be, given its articulated regulatory and institutional framework, a good example of how similar treaties, in the field of international investments, can combine the protection of the foreign company’s rights with the promotion and respect of the host-State’s public interests. Besides, in the light of the amendments to the content and scope of the EU Common Commercial Policy made by Treaty of Lisbon, through which the European Union acquires an exclusive competence in the field of FDI, it seems likely that in the future the issue of FDI may fully fall within the scope of the said Association Agreement, excluding, in the relations between Chile and the single EU Member States, the application of the BIT in force. This might encourage the parties to introduce a chapter on the setting up of a dispute settlement mechanism also operating in the relationships between investors and host-States. Such progress, in fact, would be fully in line with the recent practice of Free Trade Agreements concluded by Chile with third countries, which entrust the resolution of conflicts between the foreign company and the host-State to international arbitration bodies.

What Opportunities Do the New EU International Investment Agreements Offer for Developing Countries?

The issue of how foreign direct investment (FDI) can contribute to sustainable development processes is becoming increasingly important for many developing countries. For a long time now the issue from a development policy point of view has no longer been around how to increase the quantity of investment inflows. The quality of FDI and the contribution they make to environment-friendly and inclusive growth processes is just as important. This is accompanied by a desire on the part of many developing countries to more strongly regulate their investment inflows in order to increase their positive effects on development. This shift in focus is not just a consequence of the disillusionment that many developing countries have experienced given the minor economic benefits stemming from the liberalization of their investment regimes in the 1980s and 1990s. It is also a result of the economic success of emerging countries which frequently do not implement these recommendations for liberalization one-on-one. Furthermore, the coherence of investment agreements also has to play a greater role in light of new systemic risks such as global finance and climate risks and increased interlinking between different areas of policy. Against this backdrop, the role and substance of international investment agreements (IIA) have been subject to intense discussion in recent times. IIAs were traditionally negotiated as tools to protect from western companies’ FDI in politically unstable developing countries. This one-sided focus for IIAs is no longer appropriate today: the global investment regime is in a period of change which calls the traditional North-South logic behind IIAs into question. It is no longer just North American, European and Japanese companies that invest abroad but also their Chinese, Brazilian and Indian competitors. The need for better consideration of public and private interests in IIAs is also growing in industrialized countries as a result of the increase in reciprocal investment flows. Against this background the European Union (EU) has implemented a far-reaching institutional reform of its Common Commercial Policy as a result of the Lisbon Treaty: negotiating European IIAs now falls under the overall competency of the EU and no longer just the Member States. This merging of trade and investment policy making at EU level provides new starting points for future IIAs to be drafted in a more development-friendly manner. Development policy actors should pay greater attention to this policy area in order to increase the potential for FDI to promote sustainable development processes. The formal options for pressing for greater coherence between investment and development policy have increased as a result of Lisbon. In order to use this room to manoeuvre more effectively developing countries need additional support to increase their negotiating capacities.

Sustainable development and common commercial policy

Sustainable development and common commercial policy

New Functions and New Powers for the European Parliament: Assessing the Changes of the Common Commercial Policy from the Perspective of Democratic Legitimacy

The Lisbon Treaty’s reforms of the constitutional basis of the common commercial policy fundamentally changed the institutional balance in this policy area. One of the most important shifts as far as democratic legitimacy is concerned is the greater role of the European Parliament (EP). The increased significance of the parliament has even been called the most important change in the Lisbon Treaty. The present contribution examines the new responsibilities and functions of the EP in detail, with the central question being whether and to what extent these reforms have led to an improvement in the democratic legitimacy of the common commercial policy and a reduction in the democracy deficit. The shift in institutional balance when it comes to common commercial policy may be interesting in its own right from an interdisciplinary social science perspective. However, the results of the EU reform process reached by the Lisbon Treaty, must be primarily assessed according to whether they have contributed towards an improvement in the transparency, efficiency and democratic legitimation of the Union. These aims which were set down by the European Council in the Laeken Declaration are the “raison d’etre” of the Lisbon Treaty.

Sustainability vs. Free Trade – Establishing an Environmentally Conscious Trade Policy in the EU

Thanks to the Treaty of Lisbon, the Common Commercial Policy (CCP) became subordinate to the general principles of the EU's external actions. Consequently the Union has to take into account not only of trade liberalisation ideas, but principles outside the conventional trade policy which include the objectives of sustainable development and environmental protection. The aim of the proposed paper is to conceive a possible notion of the sustainability as objective of the CCP, moreover, it intends to describe its impacts on operating CCP. The premise of the analysis is that the EU has to face a twofold conflict. The sustainability must be reconciled with other goals of the CCP, and in this regard, the paper seeks for relationship between these objectives and makes an attempt at establishing a hierarchy of them. Besides, the integration of the sustainability in the EU's trade policy agenda presumably will lead to conflicts to be solved on international level, e.g. with WTO. The paper will conclude by stating that the sustainability objective should not be regarded as a 'conflict causer' but an opportunity to carry the environmentally conscious trade policy into effect.

Public Interest Norms in the European International Investment Policy: A Shattered Hope?

With the entrance into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, significant changes took place on the horizon of foreign direct investment (FDI). The European Union (EU) acquired exclusive competence over FDI as a part of its Common Commercial Policy. In this framework, the EU began to form the EU Investment Policy, which, among other issues, attempts to regulate on Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). One of the most considerable manifestations of Member States policies on investment in the last 50 years is the creation of the BIT regime. The role of public interest norms is a novel aspect of a BIT regime that recently attracted a lot of attention and has been intensively debated among academics and practitioners. This article attempts to evaluate the emerging EU Investment Policy from the perspective of public interest norms, by analyzing the Communication from the Commission that outline the directions of the new EU Investment policy (COM(2010)343 final) and the Proposal for Regulation on establishing transitional arrangements for bilateral investment agreements between Member States and third countries (COM(2010)344 final).

The Merger of Corporate Social Responsibility into the EU Common Commercial Policy

The present paper explores and critically assesses the incorporation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the EU common commercial policy (CCP), as established under the Lisbon Treaty, and its impact on European companies, with specific regard to environmental sustainability. The inquiry builds in particular upon the ‘Resolution on Corporate Social Responsibility in International Trade Agreements’ adopted by the European Parliament on 25 November 2010, and concludes that the prospected EU CCP/CSR policy is extremely rational and progressive, but might fall short of effectiveness within the context of fragmented global law.

Current Features of the European Union Regime for Export Control of Dual‐Use Goods*

AbstractExport control of dual‐use goods and technologies is a crucial element of the security policies of countries that are exporters of technology, aimed at avoiding the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. One of the main features of the EU regime of export control is that it poses challenges in terms of the EU competence that refers to the common commercial policy and to the security policy. Indeed, this article analyzes the developments concerning the EU competence in this field and how the different nature of the competences has influenced the EU export control regime. Moving from the origins of the Community regime for export control, mainly in the context of the completion of the internal market in the early 1990s, particular attention will be devoted to the limits of Regulation 1334/2000 setting up a Community regime for the export control, and of subsequent Regulation 428/2009.

The Merger of Corporate Social Responsibility into the EU Common Commercial Policy

The article critically assesses the incorporation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the EU Common Commercial Policy (CCP) and its impact on European companies. The enquiry concludes that the prospected EU CCP/CSR policy is extremely rational and progressive but might fall short of effectiveness within the context of fragmented global law.

The Entry into Force of the Lisbon Treaty: The European Union in Retrospect and Prospect

SummaryThe history of European integration unmistakably shows that it has progressed step by step and is indeed an ongoing and irreversible process. One such step is the conclusion of the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force on 1 December 2009, following negotiations spanning nearly a decade. The treaty aims, inter alia, at improving the functioning of the European Union (EU) and significantly amends the treaty basis of the EU as a supranational organization. It formally establishes the EU as a legal entity under public international law, strengthens the role of the European Parliament, and significantly reforms the role of the high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy. Moreover, the treaty has made the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights a legally binding and enforceable instrument and has expanded the competences of the EU in the fields of trade and other external commercial relations by providing it with exclusive competence to conduct the EU’s Common Commercial Policy. The author reviews these and other innovations of the Lisbon Treaty and briefly evaluates the treaty and its implications for the EU.