“The Cyprus Presidency will promote an open, ambitious, balanced, and forward-looking trade agenda”. This is how Cyprus, which has held the Presidency of the Council of the EU since 1 January, intends to frame its work on EU trade policy. The country is thus maintaining its usual line of openness to the EU, without committing itself to concluding or signing any free trade agreements (FTAs) in particular.
The Cyprus Presidency’s priorities include pushing ahead with the ratification of agreements for which negotiations have already been completed. It refers to “Latin America”, not to mention the agreement with the Mercosur countries (see other news) or the agreement with Mexico (see EUROPE 13560/1). It also mentions “the ASEAN regions”, where the EU has concluded negotiations with Indonesia (see EUROPE 13715/15).
As for the FTAs still under negotiation, those with India and the United Arab Emirates will, in any case, receive special attention from the Cyprus Presidency of the Council.
Economic relations with China are not expanded on in the Presidency’s priorities - it only states that it supports “constructive dialogue to address issues of concern, and cooperation on areas of shared interest”.
The Cyprus Presidency goes into more detail about its vision for transatlantic relations. It is fully committed to implementing the joint declaration by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the US President, Donald Trump. It advocates a “forward-looking engagement” for EU-US relations, but makes no mention of the risks posed by US threats to the EU’s digital sovereignty (see EUROPE 13758/2) or US impediments to global trade rules.
Finally, in direct relation to the EU’s industrial policy, the Cyprus Presidency wishes to “work constructively” to conclude the work on the future steel safeguard (see EUROPE 13725/1). This must be finalised before June, when the current measure expires.
Links to the Presidency programme and ministerial meetings: https://aeur.eu/f/k4d ; https://aeur.eu/f/k5o (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)