EU wants to deter and sanction coercive practices by third countries

The new anti-coercion instrument should primarily have a deterrent effect, according to the European Commission, which presented its proposal on Wednesday 8 December.

“Our feeling is that, in many cases, the existence of a clear instrument to allow us to move to a final stage of countermeasures can have a deterrent effect and allow this coercion not to materialise or to cease ”, explained an EU official.

The Commission proposes to have a tool to respond to situations where a third country “interferes in the legitimate sovereign choices of the Union or a Member State by seeking to prevent or obtain the cessation, modification or adoption of a particular act by the Union or a Member State by applying or threatening to apply measures affecting trade or investment”. In such circumstances, the Commission may adopt “countermeasures” against the third country concerned. “At a time of rising geopolitical tensions, trade is increasingly being weaponised and the EU and its Member States becoming targets of economic intimidation. We need the proper tools to respond”, said EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. [...]

MEP Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, who will also be rapporteur for the text, welcomed the proposal. “There is a gap in our toolbox that others can exploit. With the tool presented by the Commission we will fill that gap”, he said. [...]