European trade policy from the point of view of the democratic principle. What common trade policy do we want?

Abstract

The need to preserve an European Union’s strategic position in an intensely globalized scenario explains why the Treaty of Lisbon has reinforced the level of integration of the Common Trade Policy. The deepening of the level of integration in this field has been accompanied by a strengthening of the democratic legitimacy of the European processes of negotiation and conclusion of Trade Treaties, fundamentally, through the important role that the European Parliament plays today. Its intervention has allowed the introduction of transparency in a traditionally opaque area. But the Common Trade Policy still has to face challenges from the point of view of its legitimacy. In our opinion, the need to build an influential and credible Union on the international scene cannot ignore the existence of «mixed treaties». When the Union tries to negotiate and conclude a mixed trade treaty alone, it is undermining the real ownership of power in clear opposition to the democratic principle and the European constitutional framework. However, the current negotiation and conclusion processes of mixed treaties weaken the EU position —and of the States themselves— in front of the trading partners. Therefore, it is necessary to review them.