18 February 2026
Has the European Parliament Shot Itself in the Foot?
After 25 years of negotiations, on 6 December 2024, the EU and four Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay – reached an EU-Mercosur Agreement. The geoeconomic importance of this Agreement cannot be understated. Against this background, it came as a surprise when a narrow majority in the EP, backed by far-right and far-left parties alike, on 21 January 2026, requested an opinion on its compatibility with EU law. By contesting the legality of the Agreement, the EP risks losing a formal say over the temporal application of the “trade part” of broader mixed agreements pending ratification in the Member States. Continue reading >>
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13 October 2018
Some Thoughts on Facultative and Obligatory Mixity after Singapore and COTIF, and before CETA
The conclusion of agreements as ‘mixed’, that is jointly by the European Union and its Member States, is a legal phenomenon peculiar to the EU legal order. Notwithstanding the almost complete silence of the Treaties on the point, mixity quickly became common practice for the Union and was, in most instances, readily accepted by its contractual partners. That does not mean, however, that mixity has not given rise, to date, to lengthy and often heated debates within, between and before the EU institutions. Continue reading >>
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