The Role of the European Parliament in the Conclusion and Implementation of Free Trade Agreements - An Introduction

On 9 December 2016, the Interest Group on International Economic Law (IEL IG) of the European Society of International Law (ESIL), together with the Policy Department A: Economic and Scientific Policies of the European Parliament (EP), organized an International Conference in the Brussels EP premises on "The Role of the European Parliament in the Conclusion and Implementation of Agreements on International Economic Law Issues." Infact, the analysis of the role of the European Parliament in EU treaty-making and implementation of agreements on International Economic Law (IEL) is necessary to assess the level of implementation of the institutional and substantive values enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty through EP activity, as well as to evaluate how the representatives of the citizens may provide for appropriate answers to the civil society's request of more participation, transparency, democracy and fairness in the shaping of the new instruments concerning international trade and protection and promotion of foreign investments. The contributions selected through an international call for papers for the Brussels Conference, published in part in this special section of the Review, aim to stress the lights and shadows of EP activities on the definition of the new generation of free trade agreements, be they the so called mega-regionals -like the EU/Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), or the EU/USA Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)- involving all the aspects of international economic law, or just agreements concerning international investment protection and promotion - like the currently negotiated stand-alone investment agreement between the EU and China. Starting from the analysis of Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann on what he considers as critical aspects of the final legislative framework defined for CETA and the EU proposal for a new international investment court system, the overview enlarges to the contributions of Fernando Dias Simões on the struggle of the EP to promote full transparency and thus its significant participation in every step of EU treaty-making, and Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi also covering how transparency is endorsed by the European Assembly in the provisions of the new free trade agreements (FTAs) with specific reference to investment arbitration proceedings and the activities of the joint common treaty bodies charged with the task of implementing FTAs once entered into force. A comparative perspective is then offered by Ana M. Lopez-Rodriguez, who presents the debate on mega-deals in the US system, with particular reference to the US Congress; and Jose Gustavo Prieto Muñoz, whose work is concentrated on the approach of the Latin-American States to the need of democracy and fairness for defining economic global issues.