ECOvalence Policy Forums
- Sustainable Trade in the Making? Coherence and Pluralism in the EU’s Open, Green, Digital & Geopolitical Agenda (May - June 2024)
- The Integration of Biodiversity in Economic Policies - On the Edge of extinctions or new life in environmental-economic governance (April - May 2023)
- Unilateralisation of EU Trade Policies - Asserting interests or deserting principles? (September - November 2022)
Sustainable Trade in the Making? Coherence and Pluralism in the EU’s Open, Green, Digital & Geopolitical Agenda
Sustainability has become a key topic in EU trade policy for two reasons. On the one hand, the accelerating environmental crises have increased the expectations towards EU trade policy to reduce its environmental footprint and to contribute to the green transition. On the other hand, geopolitical tensions have put the durability of global supply chains and of the multilateral liberal trading system into question. The European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen has tried to respond to both developments with an Open, Sustainable, and Assertive Trade Policy. Since 2019 the European Commission has proposed several unilateral trade instruments and integrated other policy areas in its bilateral and multilateral trade agendas. In the end of the current Commission’s 5-year term, the coherence between EU trade policy and other EU agendas in environment, digitalization, security, migration, agriculture, security and development remains however unclear. How coherent is EU trade policy with other policy fields? What level of integration has been reached? When have the policies remained less coherent? And what does sustainable trade actually mean from the perspectives of the different policy fields?
The VUB Brussels School of Governance and partner institutions organize a series of public policy forums on the topic of sustainable trade and its interlinkages with other policy fields from May to June 2024. In the context of the European elections, the series takes stock of the attempts of the outgoing European Commission to make trade more sustainable. It aims to contribute to the discussion on the next European trade agenda by reflecting on the coherence and complexity of sustainable trade and its interlinkages with the areas of environment, digitalization, security, migration, agriculture, and development. The series discusses the synergies and trade-offs with distinguished experts in seven weekly forums on Tuesdays, Wednesday, or Thursdays from 12:30 to 14:00 CET in a hybrid format.
- Date: 14 May 2024
- Speakers: Inga Carry (German Institute for International and Security Affairs), Emily Stewart (Global Witness), Danardi Haryanto (Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia to the EU), Antoine Oger (Institute for European Environmental Policy)
- Moderator: João Teixeira de Freitas, PhD Researcher, Curiae Virides Project, Brussels School of Governance
Sustainable Trade & Environment – Coherence and Complexities of Trade Agreements
- Date: 21 May 2024
- Speakers: Dora Correia (Director DG Trade, European Commission) , Elias Luna Santos (Minister-Counsellor Economic and Trade Affairs, Brazilian Mission to the European Union), Andrea Ribeiro-Hoffmann (Associate Professor, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro), Mathilde Dupré (Co-Directrice, Veblen Institute), Johan Mulder (Chief International Trade Unit, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean; Visiting fellow UNU-CRIS)
- Moderator: Liliana Lizarazo-Rodriguez, Research Professor, Brussels School of Governance
- Date: 30 May 2024
- Speakers: Nathalie Rubin-Delanchy (Public Policy Manager, Amazon),
Kholofelo Kugler (University of Lucerne, Advisory Centre for WTO law),
Ilias Iakovidis (Adviser, European Commission, DG Connect), Els Bruggeman (Head of Policy and Enforcement, Test-Aankoop) - Moderator: Harri Kalimo, Professor, Co-Director Research Centre Environment, Economy and Energy, Brussels School of Governance
Sustainable Trade & Security – Coherence and De-Risking in a Geopolitizing context
- Date: 5 June 2024
- Speakers: Frank Hoffmeister (General Counsel, European External Action Service), Georgia Epicoco (Senior EU Public Affairs Manager, Huawei), Gregorz Stec (Head of Brussels Office, Mercator Institute for China Studies), Angeline Sanzay (Policy Advisor on EU-China climate diplomacy, E3G), Conor McCaffrey (Research Analyst, Bruegel)
- Moderator: Aya Adachi, PhD, Ruhr University Bochum
Sustainable Trade & Migration – Coherence or Pluralism under a Trend of Deterrence?
- Date: 12 June 2024
- Speakers: Amanda Bisong (Policy Officer, ECDPM Center for Africa-Europe Relations), Claudio Francavilla (Associate Director, EU Advocacy at Human Rights Watch), Alexandra Sa Carvalho (Deputy Head of Unit International Affairs, DG HOME, European Commission), Junior Lodge (Assistant Secretary-General, Head of the Department of Structural Economic Transformation and Trade, OACPS)
- Moderator: Paula Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, Post-Doc, University of Cologne
Sustainable Trade & Agriculture – Coherence and Pluralism at a Politically Charged Intersection
- Date: 19 June 2024
- Speakers: Mark Cropper (Senior Expert, DG for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission), Jyrki Niemi (Research Professor, Natural Resources Institute Finland), Ralph Armah (Research Fellow, University of Ghana), Virginia Enssle (International and Institutional Relations Manager, Fairtrade Advocacy Office), Nelli Hajdu (Secretary-General, CELCAA European Liaison Committee for Agricultural and Agri-Food Trade)
- Moderator: Attila Jambor, TRADE4SD Coordinator, Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest
- Date: 26 June 2024
- Speakers: Sergi Corbalan (Advisor on International Trade, Greens-EFA group in the European Parliament), Sarah Katz-Lavigne (University of Antwerp), Robin Roels (European Environmental Bureau), Helena Maria Cavaco Viegas (Senior Policy Officer, Energy Intensive Industries and Raw Materials Unit, DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission), Ruth Lambrechts (Umicore), Bossissi Nkuba (University of Antwerp, RMCA & U.C.Bukavu)
- Moderator: Jan Orbie, Professor at Ghent University
- Date: 2 July 2024
- Speakers: Micol BERTOLINI (Senior Policy Adviser, American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union), James NEDUMPARA (Professor, Head of Centre for Trade and Investment Law, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade), Canan NİLÜFER DORA (Deputy Permanent Delegate of Turkiye to the EU), Cláudia Azevedo (Policy Analyst, Europe Jacques Delors)
- Moderator: Simon Otto, PhD Researcher, Centre for Environment, Economy and Energy, Brussels School of Governance
- Concluding Key Note: Karel de Gucht, President Brussels School of Governance, former Commissioner for Trade, European Commission (2010-2014)
Societal outreach
The Integration of Biodiversity in Economic Policies – On the edge of extinctions or new life in environmental-economic governance? 18 April - 30 May 2023
Biodiversity is currently declining at an unprecedented rate. In 2019, the IPBES warned of a serious risk of a sixth mass extinction of species with significant consequences for ecosystems, climate and human well-being. Four years later, COP15 has adopted the Global Biodiversity Framework, the EU has adopted its Biodiversity for 2030, and even the WTO has banned subsidies for fisheries of overfished stocks, the high seas, or illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing. However, none of the ten years Aichi biodiversity targets was reached in 2020, there is not yet an agreement on the UN Treaty for the protection of the oceans, and the dependencies and impact of human production and consumption patterns on biodiversity are still difficult to capture - both in analytical terms and concrete policies.
This BSOG Policy Forum Series reflects new legislative frameworks on how to better integrate, protect and restore biodiversity in economic policy making. Will the new policies ensure biodiversity conservation or fail again to reach their targets? How can economic and financial decision-making better grasp, value, and account biodiversity? How can the frameworks on the table be sufficiently implemented into trade, economic and financial policies in place? How do companies need to integrate biodiversity conservation in their day-to-day business, and what is the role of individual consumption?
Policy initiatives covered by the series:
- Global Biodiversity Framework
- WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies
- UN Treaty on the Oceans
- EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030
- EU Taxonomy on Sustainable Investments
- EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence
- EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
- Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature initiative
Sessions
Biodiversity in Economic Valuation
- Date: 18 April 2023
- Speakers: Reine Spiessens (WWF Belgium), Luc Janssens de Bisthoven (CEBIOS-Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences), Stijn Neuteleers (Open University of the Netherlands & Maastricht University), David Leclère (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)
- Moderator: Prof. Dr. Jean Hugé, VUB-Open Universiteit Nederland
Integrating Biodiversity in Trade
- Date: 2 May 2023
- Speakers: Madelaine Tuininga (European Commission, DG Trade, Head of Unit Trade and Sustainable Development), Shunta Yamaguchi (OECD, Environment Directorate, Policy Analyst Environment and Economy Integration), Marianne Kettunen (GCRF Trade, Development and the Environment Hub, Senior Policy Expert & Advisor), Saskia Bricmont (European Parliament, Greens/EFA group, MEP)
- Moderator: Simon Happersberger, PhD Researcher, BSoG
Biodiversity in a Circular Economy
- Date: 16 May 2023
- Speakers: Tim Forslund (Specialist, Nature and the economy, SITRA (The Finnish Innovation Fund)), Barbara Oberc (Senior Policy Officer, International Union for the Conservation of Nature), Anna Karamat (DG Environment, European Commission), Timo Lehesvirta (Leading Nature Expert, Metsä Group)
- Moderator: Harri Kalimo, Director of Research Centre for Environment, Economy and Energy, BSoG
- Date: 30 May 2023
- Speakers: Marianne Haahr (TNFD and Nature Finance lead at Global Canopy), Sébastien Godinot (WWF European Policy office, Economist), Arne Klug (Director of Biodiversity research, MSCI), Jessica Smith (Nature Lead at the United Nations Environment Program - Finance initiative (UNEP FI))
- Moderator: François Antoine D.Gardin, PhD Researcher, BSoG
Unilateralisation of EU Trade Policies -- Asserting interests or deserting principles?
The European Union has recently launched multiple new trade policy measures. They are attracting considerable attention both within the EU and amongst the Union’s trading partners and resonate closely with the Union’s new “more assertive and sustainable European trade policy”, introduced early 2021. The initiatives are seen by many as aimed at increasing the Union’s strategic autonomy; defending European values and interests in a world that is increasingly geopolitical. Concerns over secure supplies have only exacerbated as a consequence of the Russian war on Ukraine. The new trade measures however also have the objective of leveraging the EU’s economic power with its trading partners in sectors beyond trade, such as labour standards and environmental sustainability. Are we thus witnessing in the EU a shift away from multilateralism towards more defensive, unilateral policies? Is such a unilateralist shift blending trade with other policies? How are these new measures portrayed by the European Commission and the European External Action Service? What are the reactions from the EU’s trading partners?
Opening panel: Unilateralisation in the EU’s trade policies
- Date: 29 September 2022
- Speakers: C. Cheremetinski (Perm Rep France), M. Keinänen (Perm Rep Finland), P. Sandler (DG Trade), Stephen Kho (partner, Akin Gump LLP).
- Moderator: Prof. J. Pauwelyn, Prof. H. Kalimo
Unilateralisation and a level playing field
- Date: 13 October 2022
- Speakers: K. De Gucht (former Trade commissioner), M.-S. Dibling (King & Spalding), E. Vermulst (VVGB), L. Elsen (DG Trade)
- Moderator: Prof. H. Kalimo
Unilateralisation and sustainability
- Date: 27 October 2022
- Speakers: S. Bartelt (Cabinet Urpilainen (INTPA)), M Bozay (Perm Rep Türkiye), Costa e Silva (Brazilian Mission to EU) .
- Moderator: Prof. F de Ville, Dr. K. Holzer
Unilateralisation and geopolitics
- Date: 10 November 2022
- Speakers: C. Brown (DG Trade), F. Hoffmeister (EEAS), J. Konguy (Huawei), M. Pelant (Perm Rep Czech Rep) (TBC).
- Moderator: Prof. Ferdi de Ville
