The programme of the Bulgarian presidency of the Council for the first half of 2018 will focus on support for the multilateral trade system governed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), continuation of the EU agenda on free trade agreements with third countries, as well as the EU’s response to unfair trade, including the control of third country investment in strategic sectors, or the opening of public procurement in third countries, confirmed Bulgarian Economy Minister Emil Karanikolov, speaking on Monday 22 January.
“We shall have logical priorities that ensure continuity of the work done by the Estonian presidency. Our presidency will do everything necessary to strengthen cooperation between the three EU institutions with regards trade”, Karanikolov said, addressing the European Parliament’s committee on international trade. He reiterated Sofia’s credo: “consensus, competitiveness and cohesion”.
At multilateral level, the Bulgarian presidency will endeavour to consolidate an ailing multilateral trade system, as seen by the recent failure of the 11th ministerial conference of the WTO, in Buenos Aires mid-December 2017 (see EUROPE 11926). “We must see how to break the current stalemate and continue dialogue in order to strengthen the WTO system, not only for the pursuit of multilateral negotiations but also for the consultative mechanism or for dispute settlement”, Karanikolov explained, announcing that the Bulgarian presidency would be triggering reflection in Council on the future of WTO reform.
Sofia is also hoping to bring EU leadership to the WTO’s plurilateral talks, notably by supporting the process with a view to talks on electronic trade. Headed by Australia, Japan and Singapore, a group of 70 WTO countries including 28 EU member states and the United States undertook, in Buenos Aires, to initiate exploratory work from the first quarter of 2018 with a view to future negotiations on e-trade under the WTO (see EUROPE 11926).
In addition, the Bulgarian presidency will support reform of the international dispute settlement system between states and investors and future negotiations for the creation of a multilateral court for settling investment-related litigation, proposed at the end of 2016 by the EU and Canada on the basis of the investment court system (ICS), within the comprehensive economic and trade agreement (CETA). On 13 September 2017, the Commission put a recommendation to the Council to open talks on the creation of a multilateral investment court (see EUROPE 11862).
At bilateral level, the Bulgarian presidency hopes to finalise the “legal scrubbing” of free trade agreements with Singapore and Vietnam. “We trust that the work will be completed in 2018. We shall call on the Parliament to give its consent to these two agreements”, Karanikolov said.
The Bulgarian presidency will also ensure finalisation at technical level at the beginning of the legal scrubbing of the economic partnership agreement with Japan, concluded on 8 December 2017, with a view to what the Commission hopes will be its integral ratification and implementation by early 2019. Sofia also plans to stimulate relevant discussion on the protection of investment.
When it comes to negotiations underway, the Bulgarian presidency will continue working towards concluding talks for an EU/Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) free trade agreement, and for modernising the EU/Mexico comprehensive agreement. Both talks are now coming to an end. It will also work towards advancing talks recently on course to modernise the EU/Chile association agreement.
Sofia plans to finalise work with a view to granting mandates for authorising the Commission to negotiate free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand. The adoption, by the Council of the EU, of these mandates proposed in September 2017 by the Commission, hangs on the internal EU debate on the new architecture of the trade agreements (see EUROPE 11901).
Macro-financial support for Georgia, free trade agreements with Moldova and Ukraine, and economic partnerships with the countries of North Africa and the Middle East are also on the Bulgarian presidency’s work agenda.
At the internal EU level, the Bulgarian presidency wants to take forward key issues relating to a response to unfair third country trade.
On one hand, it will ensure confirmation and validation of an inter-institutional agreement on the recasting of EU trade protection instruments, concluded on 5 December 2017 and confirmed on 20 December in Council at ambassadorial level (see EUROPE 11920). The chairman of the international trade committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), said on Monday that he expected the EU to give a vote of confirmation in May.
Furthermore, the Bulgarian presidency will encourage discussion on the draft Community framework for filtering foreign direct investment (FDI) from third countries in the EU, proposed by the Commission on 14 September 2017 (see EUROPE 11862), in order to reach a Council position with a view to three-way talks with the Parliament. “We shall seek to reach as broad a consensus as possible in the Council on a text that does not entail an administrative burden and which ensures a balance is struck on conditions for European operators and third country operators”, Karanikolov said.
Sofia also wishes to reopen discussion with the Council on the matter of opening up third country public procurement with scrutiny of the amendments made by the Commission to its proposal for a mechanism of reciprocity for the opening of third country public procurement, proposed in March 2012 (see EUROPE 10579).
Finally, in response to numerous representatives of every political faction, Karanikolov pledged to work on a political agreement in Council on the proposal to recast the Community regime for the control of dual purpose exports, in order to negotiate with the European Parliament. The latter reached its position with an overwhelming majority on 17 January (see EUROPE 11941). (Original in French by Emmanuel Hagry).