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.
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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 Sadeleer, Ivana Damjanovic, Sophia 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