Zoeken

The partnership agreement between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states (the 'Cotonou Agreement') was due to expire in February 2020. The EU and the then ACP Group of States – which later became the Organisation of the ACP States (OACPS) – started negotiations on a 'post-Cotonou' agreement in September 2018. The EU and the OACPS agreed on the principle of a common foundation complemented by three regional protocols. However, the multi-level negotiations, the ...

The Indian Ocean hosts some of the fastest growing economies in the world and connects these economies with both the Atlantic Ocean and the Asia-Pacific region, making the Indo-Pacific a region of tremendous geostrategic importance. For over a decade, China has been increasing its maritime presence and its ambitions in the region and beyond. With the development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 and renewed tensions between China and Taiwan, China's territorial claims and its artificial ...

Global value chains enable two-thirds of international trade, notably for the EU. The EU wants to preserve its commercial links with third countries and organisations to make up for trade disruptions. This study examines sustainable supply of raw materials, commodities, and critical goods using the EU's Open Strategic Autonomy concept. It examines which raw material are crucial for sustainable supply and necessary for the green transition. The paper examines EU internal legislation and international ...

The European Union’s international trade has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, broken supply chains, the growth of protectionism in many regions and, most recently, from Russia’s war on Ukraine. The United States' trade policy towards China, which is aimed at curbing the authoritarian country’s growing power, has exacerbated the fragmentation of trade. The United States has adopted the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive green subsidy programme which analysts and politicians say may lower the competitiveness ...

On 9 December 2022, 20 years after the signature of EU-Chile Association Agreement in 2002, the EU and Chile reached an agreement in principle on a new EU-Chile Advanced Framework Agreement, which comprises modernised trade and political and cooperation pillars. Negotiations were launched to modernise the 2002 Association Agreement, including its trade pillar in November 2017, based on a Council negotiating mandate, which was the first-ever to have been published to enhance transparency and inclusiveness ...

The war in Ukraine has put Europe's dependence on energy imports under the spotlight. The United States (US) has stepped in and pledged to increase its exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. While this helps address the shortfall in energy imports from Russia in the short term, it raises the question as to how far the EU wants to build an energy partnership with the US. Closely intertwined with the energy challenge is the fight against climate change. With the European Union (EU) committing ...

EU strategic autonomy (EU-SA) refers to the capacity of the EU to act autonomously – that is, without being dependent on other countries – in strategically important policy areas. These can range from defence policy to the economy, and the capacity to uphold democratic values. In order to structure the debate on strategic autonomy into analytical categories, this briefing assumes that by and large there have been several phases to the debate about EU-SA, each with a different focus. From 2013 to ...

The economies of Japan and of the EU followed similar trends in 2020, a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Both economies faced shrinking GDP, growing unemployment, rising public debt, while inflation stayed moderate and the exchange rate remained stable. Although there was a fallback in trade between the two blocks, the EU ranked as third on the list of top trade partners of Japan (trade in goods), while the latter was the seventh biggest trade partner of the EU. Mechanical appliances and electrical ...

The growing importance of global supply chains has fundamentally changed the way the global economy and goods manufacturing are organised. While trade conducted through global supply chains has fallen somewhat as a share of total trade since the 2008-2010 global financial and economic crisis, more than two-thirds of international trade still involves transactions made possible by such chains. The EU is profoundly involved in these production chains, more so than most other countries, and significantly ...

In December 2020, the European Commission and the High Representative/Vice-President (HR/VP) published an ambitious agenda for transatlantic cooperation with the incoming US administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. This was followed by an EU-US Summit on 15 June 2021, which saw the launch of new formats for EU-US collaboration. Yet unexpected foreign policy developments since then have raised questions about the partnership's future. Parliament is expected to debate and vote on a report on ...