EU strengthens protection against economic coercion

The European Commission has proposed a new tool to counter the use of economic coercion by third countries.

This legal instrument is in response to the EU and its Member States becoming the target of deliberate economic pressure in recent years. It strengthens the EU’s toolbox and will allow the EU to better defend itself on the global stage.

The anticoercion instrument is designed to de-escalate and induce discontinuation of specific coercive measures through dialogue as a first step. Any countermeasures taken by the EU would be applied only as a last resort when there is no other way to address economic intimidation, which can take many forms. These range from countries using explicit coercion and trade defence tools against the EU, to selective border or food safety checks on goods from a given EU country, to boycotts of goods of certain origin. The aim is to preserve the EU and the Member States' legitimate right to make policy choices and decisions and prevent serious interference in the sovereignty of the EU or its Member States.

Next steps:

The proposal now needs to be discussed and agreed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. It will be considered under the Ordinary Legislative Procedure, whereby the Parliament and Council will internally develop their positions before negotiating with each other in Trilogue discussions with the assistance of the Commission. In the next two months, stakeholders and citizens may provide further feedback, on which the Commission will report to the Council and Parliament.

Source: European Commission