External action and trade policy is traditionally seen as dominated by the executive. Yet, EU trade policy has undergone a gradual process of democratization, as the powers of the European Parliament have gradually expanded. At the same time, the expansion of the scope of the EU’s exclusive powers has led to a loss of control of Member State parliaments. This shift in distribution of powers and the increased awareness of the environmental and redistributive effects of EU trade policy have made the EU’s trade agreements subject to a tremendous intra-parliamentary and extra-parliamentary debate. This workshop aims to explore the implications of this new distribution of powers for the substantive content of trade agreements, as concerns in particular sustainability and (in)equality.

Date & Time

4 June 2021

9:00 -15:00

More Details

Preliminary Programme

9:00 Welcome & Introduction – Christina Eckes

9:15 Panel I: Fundamental issues of separation in powers in trade policy

Marise Cremona and Laurens Ankersmit, discussant Christina Eckes

10:45 Break

11:00 Panel II: Separation of powers, sustainability and (in)equality in trade and investment

Nicolas de SadeleerIvana DamjanovicSophia Paulini, discussant Hannes Lenk

12:30 Break

13:30 Panel III: Potential effects of separation of powers on sustainability and (in)equality

Anna Marhold and Werner Raza, discussant Piotr Krajewski

15:00 Closing