{"title":"Linking “values” to EU trade policy—a good idea?","authors":"Jacques Pelkmans","doi":"10.1111/eulj.12409","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Should EU values be pursued by means of EU trade policy or separately via other policies? Article 21/3 TEU instructs the Council and the Commission to ‘ensure consistency between the different areas of its external action’, often (mis?)interpreted as a merger of all external policies with respect to values. Is this “merger” justified by the EU public interest? Linkage advocates are interested in the clout of EU trade and investment policy, but not in its objectives. Detailed recent research shows no empirical evidence of the effectiveness of value linkages. Thus, coupling values and EU trade policy may be costly and has few, if any, advantages; its main effect is continuous attention being paid to these issues (seen as a virtue by some). This article includes illustrations concerning the EU–Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), EU/China cooperation on sustainable development and the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI).</p>","PeriodicalId":47166,"journal":{"name":"European Law Journal","volume":"26 5-6","pages":"391-400"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Law Journal","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eulj.12409","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Should EU values be pursued by means of EU trade policy or separately via other policies? Article 21/3 TEU instructs the Council and the Commission to ‘ensure consistency between the different areas of its external action’, often (mis?)interpreted as a merger of all external policies with respect to values. Is this “merger” justified by the EU public interest? Linkage advocates are interested in the clout of EU trade and investment policy, but not in its objectives. Detailed recent research shows no empirical evidence of the effectiveness of value linkages. Thus, coupling values and EU trade policy may be costly and has few, if any, advantages; its main effect is continuous attention being paid to these issues (seen as a virtue by some). This article includes illustrations concerning the EU–Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), EU/China cooperation on sustainable development and the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI).
期刊介绍:
The European Law Journal represents an authoritative new approach to the study of European Law, developed specifically to express and develop the study and understanding of European law in its social, cultural, political and economic context. It has a highly reputed board of editors. The journal fills a major gap in the current literature on all issues of European law, and is essential reading for anyone studying or practising EU law and its diverse impact on the environment, national legal systems, local government, economic organizations, and European citizens. As well as focusing on the European Union, the journal also examines the national legal systems of countries in Western, Central and Eastern Europe and relations between Europe and other parts of the world, particularly the United States, Japan, China, India, Mercosur and developing countries. The journal is published in English but is dedicated to publishing native language articles and has a dedicated translation fund available for this purpose. It is a refereed journal.