*With its new trade strategy, the EU will get tougher on its trading
partners, giving sustainability centre stage. The EESC also firmly believes
that civil society organisations and social partners should be given a
seat at the table, to ensure that the benefits emerging from this new trade
policy are genuinely distributed among all participants, both in the EU and
in the partner countries. *
The COVID-19 crisis has had an unprecedented impact on the global economy,
trade and investment, and has sparked a debate on the need to overhaul
national and European trade and industrial policies.
Against this background, in February 2021, the European Commission laid out
a new open, sustainable and assertive trade policy, intending to promote
not only the competitiveness of European industry but also European values
and principles. The EESC feels, however, that there are a number of
prerequisites for the implementation of this policy.
In an own-initiative opinion adopted at the EESC March Plenary, the members and representatives of civil society organisations pointed out that a new framework for free trade and investment agreements is needed, in order to include the participation of
civil society organisations and at the same time to raise public awareness.
In particular, *Stefano Palmieri*, EESC member and rapporteur for the
opinion highlighted that *"A new negotiating methodology is needed, one
able to establish a new roadmap that will ensure that civil society
organisations and social partners are actively involved throughout
negotiations"* and added, *"This methodology must be used by both the EU
and the countries forming the other party to the negotiations".*
*The time has come for a dual reform process *
In recent years, the EESC has been critical of the various negotiation
tools used by the EU, such as economic partnership agreements, due in
particular to their limited transparency, their inability to enforce human
and social rights effectively and their failure to guarantee a level
playing field for all market players.
The EESC, therefore, believes that it is time to devise a new negotiating
strategy, with new standards and procedures for ensuring the broad and
constructive involvement of civil society and the social partners.
The first step towards this would be the signing of a memorandum of
understanding between the negotiating parties. The memorandum would
guarantee that both parties complete the various stages of the
negotiations would produce a roadmap and would involve civil society
organisations and social partners throughout the negotiations as observers,
meeting in a special "joint consultative committee of stakeholders" (JCCS).
On the other hand, the domestic advisory groups (DAGs), responsible for
monitoring, evaluating and implementing the agreements, seem to demonstrate
a number of shortcomings in terms of establishing criteria and clear
operating rules. As a result, the political impact of the DAGs has been
totally inadequate.
This being the case, the EESC considers that the DAGs need to be thoroughly
reformed in order to correct these weaknesses. The opinion suggests that
every agreement signed must comprise a protocol on the workings of the
DAGs, establishing a sound institutional framework.
This dual reform process, with the active participation of civil society
organisations and the social partners, will build on the new EU trade
policy and help deliver on its objectives. This will ensure that any trade
agreements concluded will contribute to a form of a sustainable, economic,
social and environmental development for both parties to the negotiations:
the EU and the partner countries.
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