Resumen de Protecting Fundamental Rights in Trade Agreements between the EU and Third Countries

Vincent Depaigne

• While human rights and trade are linked in many ways under EU agreements with third countries, fundamental rights - as deriving in particular from the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU - appear as a new issue in EU trade policy. The human rights dimension of trade policy is essentially meant to address the situation in third countries. However, the link between fundamental rights as an internal EU issue and trade has remained weaker. Trade agreements do not refer directly to fundamental rights, but contain "exceptions clauses" and references to the "right to regulate". Such provisions can be considered as referring, indirectly at least, to fundamental rights, but the issue is whether such an indirect reference is sufficient to cover all fundamental rights related concerns, in particular in the light of the new dimension of EU trade policy: investment protection and the establishment of arbitration mechanisms. The present article looks at how the recent proposals of the European Commission have taken this into consideration.