Week Ahead: EU trade ministers in Marseille, Africa, WTO work on fish and investment, ISDS

EU trade ministers are meeting in Marseille, a location chosen deliberately by the French presidency as representative of a city facing the Mediterranean and with close ties to Africa. Informal councils are opportunity for ministers to discuss key issues of the day without adopting any formal positions or conclusions. [...]

Today Monday (14 February) there will be two working sessions on trade relations with Africa and the United States, the latter also involving preparations for the next meeting of the transatlantic Trade and Technology Council which will take place in the spring in France. Over lunch ministers will hold discussions with Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, on the files currently being deliberated in that institution, not least the international procurement instrument or carbon border adjustment mechanism. [...]