Thesis defence EU values in action? Shaping sustainable trade in services mobility Add to calendar 2025-06-24 09:30 2025-06-24 11:30 Europe/Rome EU values in action? Sala del Torrino Villa Salviati - Castle YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Jun 24 2025 09:30 - 11:30 CEST Sala del Torrino, Villa Salviati - Castle Organised by Department of Law PhD thesis defence by Tine Deschuytere The Treaty of Lisbon transformed the EU’s role as a global trade actor. It introduced a constitutional mandate for value-driven external action, which includes the promotion of sustainable development. Where the European Commission increasingly seeks to ‘mainstream’ sustainability considerations in trade policy, the question arises of how this mandate has influenced the content of EU trade policies. This thesis examines how the Lisbon Treaty’s reforms have affected the regulation of trade in services, particularly the temporary movement of persons for service provision (GATS Mode 4). Through the lens of policy coherence, it explores how the EU reconciles its sustainability obligations with Mode 4 regulation. Findings indicate that while Mode 4 trade can promote economic and social development in emerging economies, it requires a careful balance between market openness and regulatory control. The sustainability of this trade hinges on how this balance is managed, which is determined by so-called specific commitments. These commitments define the scope of Mode 4 liberalisation in trade agreements. This study employs a novel mixed-method approach, integrating legal and quantitative analyses, to evaluate Mode 4 commitments in selected pre- and post-Lisbon Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) as well as the EU’s WTO and Doha Round Schedules. Despite formal commitments to sustainability, it finds that EU coherence obligations remain too flexible to drive substantive policy change. Path dependency with WTO law continues to shape EU commitments, embedding the shortcomings of the multilateral framework into EU FTAs. At the same time, Member States retain significant discretion to prioritise their domestic interests, often at the expense of broader sustainability objectives. As a result, Mode 4 trade remains governed by pre-existing legal and political constraints rather than serving as a meaningful tool for advancing sustainability ambitions. Register