EU trade and investment treaty-making post-Lisbon

• Department of Law

The EUI International Economic Law and Policy Working Group hosts a launch of the book 'EU Trade and Investment Treaty-Making Post-Lisbon. Moving Beyond Mixity', by Gesa Kübek (University of Groningen).

The book offers the first thorough analysis of the practice of the EU and the Member States making international agreement jointly as so-called mixed agreements post-Lisbon, providing perspectives from international, EU, and national constitutional law. In assessing mixity in the context of the EU’s trade and investment policy, the book brings together two highly current themes in EU external relations law. The author argues that in the field of trade and investment, mixity is no longer a procedural technique to overcome legal uncertainties about competence allocations between the EU and the Member States. Instead, mixity has become a deliberate substantive design choice. In view of recent practice and current challenges, such as the non-ratification of mixed agreements, ensuring parliamentary participation in EU treaty-making, the new architecture for making trade and investment agreements, or the new trade relations of the EU and the UK post-Brexit, the author suggests that in the field of trade and investment, it is time to move beyond mixity.

The event will feature a presentation by Gesa Kübek, followed by a discussion kickstarted by Patrick Abel, Max Weber Fellow at the EUI. It will be an excellent opportunity for a wider reflection on EU treaty-making in the post-Lisbon era, how mixity has evolved into a deliberate substantive design choice in the field of trade and investment and/or current legal and political challenges to the EU as a global actor.