Submitted Abstract
The conference brought international lawyers and EU external relations lawyers together to discuss recent developments concerning EU external action in the field of international economic law, concentrating on a number of important – and as yet unresolved – issues raised by recent practice and case law.Attention was paid, first, to the division of competence between the EU and the Member States in the field of international economic relations, which remains unclear. Whereas the European Commission advocates a comprehensive, all-encompassing competence under the common commercial policy provision (Art. 207 TFEU), the Member States and the Council claim that comprehensive free trade agreements (FTAs) fall within shared competence and ought to be concluded in the form of mixed agreements. Next, the highly controversial issue of the inclusion of dispute settlement mechanisms in such agreements was examined. The EU, along with its Member States, is already party to one agreement including investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), namely the Energy Charter Treaty. It is unclear, however, to what extent ISDS is compatible with EU law and with the principle of autonomy in particular. Finally, the conference discussed issues concerning the distribution of international responsibility between the EU and its Member States, as well as the relation between FTAs and the regulatory powers of the Member States in sensitive fields such as environmental protection, public health and labour law.