Challenging the Notion of Coherence in EU Foreign Investment Policy

• There have long been demands for more coherence in EU external action. The Lisbon Treaty has introduced important institutional changes in this respect. However, coherence – in the broad sense of a positive process that is focused on establishing synergies between various policy fields and actors – is still largely lacking for an EU foreign investment policy. An institutional bifurcation of different Directorates General puts fuel to the fire of a conceptual confusion of intra-EU and extra-EU investment agreements. As a consequence, overarching concerns such as compatibilitywith the principle of autonomy or effects of investor-state arbitration on the internal market are missing a coherent approach.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik -- Juridik och samhälle (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law -- Law and Society (hsv//eng)

Keyword

BITs

coherence

intra-EU

extra-EU

EU foreign investment policy

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)