The European Parliament and Civil Society in EU Trade Negotiations: The Untold Story of an Erratic Engagement

The article calls into question the picture that is often uncritically depicted around the European Parliament (EP) and civil society as newly empowered actors and consistent advocates of citizens’ interests in EU trade negotiations. The contribution of the article is twofold. First, it provides a comparative and empirical account of the mobilization of the EP and civil society across the negotiations of the new generation EU trade agreements. It shows that a common thread has been an erratic engagement, along the lines of politicization: the EP has only been vocal in response to civil society mobilization; and civil society mobilization in turn has been inconsistent, even though some contested issues were common to all trade negotiations. Second, the article sheds light on improvements in democratic treaty-making practices that emerged as a result of the mobilization of the EP and civil society. While drawing some lessons on EU trade law-making going forward, the article calls for a more modest appraisal of the legacy of these newly emerged democratic practices. EU trade negotiations, international treaty-making, European Parliament, civil society, mobilization, CETA, TTIP, EU-Singapore FTA, EU-Japan EPA