On 18 February, EU Commissioner for Trade Phil Hogan announced a new package to improve transparency in trade policy. The new commitments took effect on the same day and now apply to all relevant documents.

One of the new commitments includes reporting on the work of all committees estabslihed under a trade agreement. The new package also envisages the publication of:

  • the Commission’s decision authorising Member States to conduct bilateral investment negotiations;
  • non-business-sensitive summary records from the meetings of the Trade Defence Instruments Committee; and
  • Commission recommendations for negotiating directives, not only for preferential trade agreements, as this is already the case, but also for non-preferential ones. Commissioner Hogan also confirmed that the Commission’s initiative to publish documents released under the Access to documents’ Regulation will equally apply to trade-related documents.

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