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Non-economic Conditionality for Comprehensive EU International Economic Agreements?

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The European Union and the Evolving Architectures of International Economic Agreements

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Abstract

Accommodation of fundamental rights in the architecture of international economic agreements (‘IEAs’) is generally rather modest and limited to specific issues. In this context, the European Union (‘EU’) stands out as an early innovator in the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law—and thus a power for good in the global arena—by harnessing its considerable economic clout. The chapter develops this idea in four parts: (1) meaning of and rationale of fundamental rights clauses in economic agreements; (2) presence of fundamental rights clauses in current IEAs; (3) the EU’s innovative ‘essential elements’ clause; and (4) criticism and challenges to the EU approach and implications for the architecture of IEAs.

Unless otherwise stated, all translations have been made by the authors.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for instance, the Chinese Government’s idea in this respect and its differences as concerns the concept expounded on below (Tiezzi 2021).

  2. 2.

    UN GA Res 3/217 A.

  3. 3.

    Opened for signature 4 November 1950, 213 UNTS 221, entered into force 3 September 1953.

  4. 4.

    Opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171, entered into force 23 March 1976.

  5. 5.

    Payment of Various Serbian Loans Issued in France (France v. Serbia) (Judgment) [1929] PCIJ Series A No 20, 3, at 39–40; Brazilian Loans (France v. Brazil) (Judgment) [1929] PCIJ Series A No 21 94, at 120.

  6. 6.

    A case in point is the 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, which has been interpreted by some as either contrary to the UDHR (Middle East Centre 2012) or on the way to convergence (Kayaoglu 2021).

  7. 7.

    The declaration was created in a particular historical context, drafted by nine people, voted by only 48 countries and contested several times since its adoption (United Nations 1948).

  8. 8.

    Opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 3, entered into force 3 January 1976.

  9. 9.

    Opened for signature 21 December 1965, 660 UNTS 195, entered into force 4 January 1969.

  10. 10.

    Adopted 13 December 2006, 2515 UNTS 3, entered into force 3 May 2008.

  11. 11.

    North Sea Continental Shelf (Federal Republic of Germany v. Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany v. The Netherlands) (Judgment) [1969] ICJ Rep 3, 43, para 74, and 44, para 77.

  12. 12.

    Percentages in Fig. 16.1 may not exactly correspond to numbers in Table 16.1 as the sources and cut dates are slightly different (those for Fig. 16.1 were released later).

  13. 13.

    Opened for signature 15 November 2020, entered into force 1 January 2022.

  14. 14.

    Opened for signature 30 November 2018, entered into force 10 December 2019.

  15. 15.

    The agreement is named in different ways depending on the order in which the three signing countries are mentioned. Here we follow a geographical, north-to-south order and keep it that way for consistency throughout the chapter.

  16. 16.

    Entered into force 1 January 1989.

  17. 17.

    Opened for signature 8 March 2018, entered into force 30 December 2018.

  18. 18.

    Opened for signature 21 March 2018, entered into force 20 May 2019.

  19. 19.

    Tratado de Asunción para la constitución de un mercado común, signed 26 March 1991.

  20. 20.

    Protocolo de Asunción sobre compromiso con la promoción y protección de los Derechos Humanos en el MERCOSUR, 2010.

  21. 21.

    Venezuela is a suspended member since 2017, owing to its non-compliance with the Ushuaia Protocol on democracy (Dieguez 2017). Chile is an Associate State. Bolivia’s membership has now been approved (MERCOSUR 2022).

  22. 22.

    Treaty of Lisbon Amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community, opened for signature 13 December 2007, 2702 UNTS 3 No 47938, entered into force 1 December 2009.

  23. 23.

    At least until the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

  24. 24.

    Perhaps MERCOSUR is the international economic organisation that, after the EU, does more in terms of political clauses. However, it comes far second in comparison with the EU in content, and although it has exercised its economic power to show normative commitment (for instance, by suspending Venezuela’s membership in view of the rupture of the democratic order in this Member State), its power is much more limited in scope and geography.

  25. 25.

    Commented the year after by the European Parliament (European Parliament 1996).

  26. 26.

    As is well-known, the EU attempted to create a constitution in the early 2000s. In the end, the adoption of the constitution was vetoed by the electorates in two countries, France and the Netherlands. The 2009 Treaty of Lisbon kept a good part of the constitution’s content. Although the EU does not have a formal constitution, a very close proxy is the acquis communautaire, that is, the body of treaties that articulate the Union’s political form as it is today. The EU’s acquis communautaire (‘community stock’) is ‘the body of common rights and obligations that are binding on all EU countries, as EU Members (EU 2022).

  27. 27.

    Case C-268/94 Portugal v Council [1996] ECR I-6219.

  28. 28.

    Emphasis added.

  29. 29.

    Notably, fifteen times in the case of the Cotonu Agreement, the overarching framework for EU relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, adopted in 2000.

  30. 30.

    Under Articles 58(1)(a)– (b) of the VCLT and VCLTIO, two or more of the parties to a multilateral convention can conclude an inter se agreement to suspend the convention only between themselves, if this is not prohibited by the convention, subject to notification to all the parties to the agreement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ANU Centre for European Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira

  2. Department of International Humanities and Social Sciences, Perugia University for Foreigners, Perugia, Italy

    Ottavio Quirico

  3. Law School, University of New England, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Ottavio Quirico

  4. ANU Centre for European Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Ottavio Quirico

  5. Department of Political Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Ottavio Quirico

  6. Law Department, European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy

    Ottavio Quirico

Authors
  1. Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira
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  2. Ottavio Quirico
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Correspondence to Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Humanities and Social Sciences, Perugia University for Foreigners, Perugia, Italy

    Ottavio Quirico

  2. ANU Centre for European Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams

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Jiménez Lobeira, P.C., Quirico, O. (2023). Non-economic Conditionality for Comprehensive EU International Economic Agreements?. In: Quirico, O., Kwapisz Williams, K. (eds) The European Union and the Evolving Architectures of International Economic Agreements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2329-8_16

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