The European Commission would like to speed up procedures to implement the Economic partnership with Japan concluded on 8 December last, as soon as possible (see EUROPE 11922). As it stands, the agreement can only be approved by the Council and Parliament.
One Commission source indicated on Monday 11 December that the legal verification exercise of the texts negotiated had begun this week. This exercise is expected to be closed in February 2018. The agreement will then be able to be translated into all EU languages, so that the European Parliament and Council can approve it by the end of 2018. This timetable would allow for the free trade agreement to be applied by the beginning of 2019, before the end of the Juncker Commission's mandate.
It is an ambitious but feasible timetable. It has been made possible by the absence of provisions on investment protection, a subject whose “mixed” competency between the EU and member states requires ratification at a national level by the thirty-eight parliaments.
The Japanese and Europeans, however, have still not managed to reach an agreement on the format of the court in charge of settling possible investment disputes. Tokyo prefers the former dispute settlement version between investors and states, the ‘ISDS' model, to which the Europeans are determined not to return.
The Commission is again defending its new “investment court system” (ICS). According to an internal source at the European Commission, Tokyo would accept the principles of this but had doubts about the modalities for implementing it. A timetable for negotiations on the subject is expected to be established next week.
The Commission has therefore, on several occasions, insisted on the fact that the ongoing discussions on investment protection should not delay implementation of the free trade agreement. In the end, the two agreements should be concluded and only the one on investment protection would be subject to the “mixed" procedure. (Original version French by Hermine Donceel)