Suse, Andrei; Wouters, Jan --- "The provisional application of the EUs mixed trade and investment agreements" [2019] ELECD 2788; in Bosse-Platiere, Isabelle; Rapoport, Cecile (eds), "The Conclusion and Implementation of EU Free Trade Agreements" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 176

Book Title: The Conclusion and Implementation of EU Free Trade Agreements

Editor(s): Bosse-Platière, Isabelle; Rapoport, Cécile

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: The provisional application of the EUs mixed trade and investment agreements

Author(s): Suse, Andrei; Wouters, Jan

Number of pages: 27

Abstract/Description:

This chapter seeks to provide clarity with respect to certain legal questions that have recently emerged in connection with the provisional application of the EU’s mixed trade and investment agreements. Thus, the EU may only provisionally apply those parts of a mixed agreement falling within the scope of its competences. A Member State’s notification to the other parties to the agreement of its refusal or failure to ratify the agreement does not preclude, as a matter of international law, the provisional application of the agreement by the EU; nor can Member States unilaterally terminate such provisional application. In order to discontinue the EU’s provisional application of a mixed agreement, an act of the EU itself is needed. However, an argument can be made that where a Member State permanently and definitively fails to ratify a mixed agreement, the EU is under an obligation, as a matter of EU law, to terminate the provisional application of that agreement.