EU Economic Statecraft and the Law

• Department of Law

In this EU Law Working Group event, Law Researchers Miguel Mota Delgado and Lukas Schaupp will present two examples of the emerging economic statecraft of the EU. In his presentation, Miguel Mota Delgado will explore the hypothesis according to which EU competition law is being used by the European Commission to produce beneficial geopolitical results. In turn, in his presentation, Lukas Schaupp will discuss the extent to which the EU’s new Anti-Coercion Instrument will serve as a "geopolitical stick" for the EU, looking at its ability to effectively leverage the Union’s economic weight in response to an increasingly complicated international environment.

Abstract:

"Economic statecraft", understood as the use of economic means to achieve foreign policy goals, is increasingly visible in the European Union. The block is gradually leveraging its internal market to meet the challenges of an emerging international economic and security order defined by the "weaponisation" of interdependencies. This is being done through the development of "geoeconomic" strategies, ranging from the adoption of new legal instruments, such as the Anti-Coercion Instrument ("ACI"), to the repurposing of old ones, like competition law. This reality ushers in a new agenda for legal research in EU law. In this EU Law Working Group event, Miguel Mota Delgado and Lukas Schaupp will present two examples of this new EU economic statecraft. In his presentation, Miguel Mota Delgado will explore the hypothesis according to which competition law is being used by the European Commission to produce beneficial geopolitical results. In turn, in his presentation, Lukas Schaupp will discuss the extent to which the ACI will serve as a geopolitical stick for the EU, looking at its ability to effectively leverage the Union’s economic weight in response to an increasingly complicated international environment. Each speaker will act as a discussant to the other in a session chaired by Kunhao Yang.

The European Union Law Working Group is a forum where EUI members, external researchers, and practitioners working on European Union law discuss their work and interact with other scholars. All interested fellows, PhD researchers, professors and visiting academics are invited to participate.