EU STRENGTHENS PROTECTION AGAINST ECONOMIC COERCION
The European Commission has today proposed a new tool to counter the use of economic coercion by third countries. This legal instrument is in response to the EU and its Member States becoming the target of deliberate economic pressure in recent years. It strengthens the EU's toolbox and will allow the EU to better defend itself on the global stage.
The aim is to deter countries from restricting or threatening to restrict trade or investment to bring about a change of policy in the EU in areas such as climate change, taxation or food safety. The anti-coercion instrument is designed to de-escalate and induce discontinuation of specific coercive measures through dialogue as a first step. Any countermeasures taken by the EU would be applied only as a last resort when there is no other way to address economic intimidation, which can take many forms. These range from countries using explicit coercion and trade defence tools against the EU, to selective border or food safety checks on goods from a given EU country, to boycotts of goods of certain origin. The aim is to preserve the EU and the Member States' legitimate right to make policy choices and decisions and prevent serious interference in the sovereignty of the EU or its Member States.
