The European Parliament as an international actor in trade

Putte, Lore Van den; Ville, Ferdi De; Orbie, Jan

doi:10.4324/9781315713984-4

Cited by 49 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…The Commission produced several documents to clarify and map the future of European investment policy (European Commission, ; European Union, , ). The European Parliament, which had gained new competences over trade and therefore FDI under Lisbon (Van den Putte et al ., ), also sought to define the new investment policy through a series of hearings and reports produced by the newly empowered Committee on International Trade (INTA). By contrast, Member States governments argued against the Commission and the European Parliament over definitional issues to keep some sovereignty over FDI.…”

Section: Explaining the Competence Shiftmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration by Stealth: How the European Union Gained Competence over Foreign Direct Investment

Meunier

2017

J of Common Market Studies

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How are policy competences allocated between different actors? This article contributes to the literature on institutional development through an in-depth case-study of the conditions under which the competence over the negotiation of agreements on foreign direct investment (FDI) was transferred from the national level to the European Union (EU) in the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. Most analysts assume that this competence shift was a rationally designed delegation, intended to maximize European bargaining power in international investment negotiations and conceived as an important element of a teleological drive to make the EU a meaningful external actor. This article tells a different storyone where the competence shift happened by stealth as a result of a combination of neo-functionalist Commission entrepreneurship and historical accident, against the preferences of the Member States. The article also assesses whether the conditions under which the competence was transferred have implications for the implementation of the new policy.

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Section: Explaining the Competence Shiftmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration by Stealth: How the European Union Gained Competence over Foreign Direct Investment

Meunier

2017

J of Common Market Studies

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“…With the formalization of the EP's right to be kept informed about ongoing trade negotiations, we expect that the increased influx of information has led to changes in the EP's administrative procedures since 2009. We refer to a formalization—rather than a complete overhaul—as the EP had already informally extended its influence in EU external trade policy long before the Lisbon Treaty entered into force (Van den Putte et al ). Despite the existence of such pre‐Lisbon informal and ad hoc mechanisms, we argue that the formalization of the EP's role has necessitated the institutionalization of those previously informal mechanisms and thereby significantly updated the administrative capacity at committee level compared to the pre‐Lisbon situation.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting power into practice: Administrative and political capacity building in the European Parliament's Committee for International Trade

Coremans

Meissner

2018

Public Administration

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As the formal powers of the European Parliament have increased with successive treaty changes, its committees' administrations have seen a parallel growth. We argue that such administrative capacity is necessary but not sufficient for acting on formal treaty powers. Administrative capacity has to be combined with political capacity in order to muster policy impact in European Union decision‐making. By differentiating between intra‐institutional administrative and inter‐institutional political capacity, we offer a fine‐grained conceptualization of policy capacity while broadening the theoretical and empirical understanding of the European Parliament's administration as an organizational structure of formal and informal working practices, intra‐institutional coordination and inter‐institutional relations. Based on expert interviews, document analysis and participant observation, the case of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership illustrates how societal politicization of a specific policy issue triggered the European Parliament to exploit the latent potential of its post‐Lisbon administrative capacity by transforming it into a more readily deployable political capacity.

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“…Although the EP formally provides no input into setting the negotiation mandate or shaping the negotiation rounds, its interests are made relevant through informal contacts with the Commission, and its right to ratify agreements (Van den Putte et al, 2015). The EP has become a leading institution in advocating European interests in external relations (Van den Putte et al, 2015). This means that the EP often advocates for tough positions on political values where other institutions may prioritize commercial interests.…”

Section: The Institutions and Their Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Rights Conditionality in European Union Trade Negotiations: the Case of the EU–Singapore FTA

McKenzie

Meissner

2016

J of Common Market Studies

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Trade policy is among the EU's most significant capabilities in promoting values including human rights. Yet trade policy and the EU's values‐based foreign policy are often in tension. Scholarship on the social dimension of trade policy has emphasized the tension between values and the EU's commercial interests. Human rights and conditionality clauses have not been the focus of analysis, yet conditionality is one of the EU's most visible links between the trade agenda and its values‐based foreign policy. Analyzing the EU's decision‐making in negotiating human rights conditionality, this paper employs the EU–Singapore free trade agreement and its negotiation as an in‐depth single case study. The tension between commercial interests and values results in decision‐makers promoting incoherent interests. We argue that organizationally defined preferences and issue salience circumscribed the Parliament's impact on decision‐making, resulting in concessions on human rights conditionality with Singapore.

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The European Parliament as an international actor in trade

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

Integration by Stealth: How the European Union Gained Competence over Foreign Direct Investment

Integration by Stealth: How the European Union Gained Competence over Foreign Direct Investment

Putting power into practice: Administrative and political capacity building in the European Parliament's Committee for International Trade

Human Rights Conditionality in European Union Trade Negotiations: the Case of the EU–Singapore FTA

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