Date: 2016
Type: Article
The tables have turned on the European Commission : the changing nature of the pre-negotiation phase in EU bilateral trade agreements
Journal of European public policy, 2016, Vol. 23, No. 9, pp. 1367–1385
GASTINGER, Markus, The tables have turned on the European Commission : the changing nature of the pre-negotiation phase in EU bilateral trade agreements, Journal of European public policy, 2016, Vol. 23, No. 9, pp. 1367–1385
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/51604
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
We argue that one prime source of Commission autonomy in bilateral trade negotiations was the informational advantage that it acquired during the pre-negotiations, which is the phase preceding the adoption of negotiating directives by the Council. Initially, the Commission was entirely unmonitored owing to the lack of Treaty provisions applying to this stage in the negotiations. The Commission used this information asymmetry strategically vis-a-vis the Council to move outcomes closer to its ideal point. Later, member states have stepped up police-patrol monitoring manifesting itself empirically through two different channels. First, they have shifted the institutional arena for more political aspects to annual ministerial meetings. Second, preparatory works on a technical level are today followed by national experts. We examine this argument by adopting a principal-agent perspective and against the backdrop of EU-India relations.
Additional information:
Published online: 16 Sep 2015
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/51604
Full-text via DOI: 10.1080/13501763.2015.1079233
ISSN: 1350-1763; 1466-4429
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Initial version: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/33552
Version: Is based on chapter of EUI PhD thesis, 2014
Files associated with this item
- Name:
- RJPP-2015-0037.R3 post-print.pdf
- Size:
- 225.0Kb
- Format:
- Description:
- Full-text in Open Access, ...