EU'S BILATERAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS

According to IMF estimates, over the next years, 90% of world demand will be generated outside the EU. That is why it is a key priority for the EU to open up more market opportunities for European business by negotiating new Free Trade Agreements with key countries. If the EU were to complete all its current free trade talks tomorrow, it could add 2.2% to the EU's GDP or €275 billion. This is equivalent of adding a country as big as Austria or Denmark to the EU economy. In terms of employment, these agreements could generate 2.2 million new jobs or additional 1% of the EU total workforce.

THE CANADIAN COUNCIL OF CHIEF EXECUTIVES

The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is a not‐for‐profit, non‐partisan organization composed of the CEOs of 157 leading Canadian enterprises. Member companies collectively administer $4.5 trillion in assets, have annual revenues in excess of $850 billion, and are responsible for most of Canada's exports, investment, research and development, and training. The Council is represented by virtually every economic sector of the Canadian economy

NO UNANIMITY FOR NEW SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA

The 28-nation bloc's Heads of State and Government tasked the European Commission to "urgently" prepare tougher economic sanctions against Russia that could be adopted within a week. The decision on new sanctions will depend on the evolution of the situation on the ground. The EU leaders call on Russia to "immediately withdraw all its military assets and forces from Ukraine.

The new sanctions would target the same sectors as previous punitive measures, which also included an export ban for some high technology and oil exploration equipment.

THE THREE CHALLENGES OF THE INCOMING PRESIDENTS OF THE EU (COMMISSION, COUNCIL AND PARLIAMENT)

The first challenge is the economic situation: The financial crisis is receding but huge economic problems remain. Unemployment in Europe is at record highs and goes a long way to explain voter dissatisfaction with national and European leaders. Debt levels are historically high. Economic growth has turned positive again but remains far too feeble to alleviate the high joblessness or meaningfully reduce public debt, in particular in countries with high debt levels.

WEST’S SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA ARE FLAWED

When considering sanctions, we need to distinguish between their effectiveness and impact. Figures about economic negatives such as reduced trade, foreign investment, credit flows, technology transfer, GDP growth, incomes, and so on these measure impact. They do not, however, tell us how likely the sanctions are to cause Russia to change its behavior that is, how effective they will be.

UKRAINE’S GENERAL TERMS OF PEACE NEGOTIATIONS

Ukraine is a country long divided by ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural, economic, and political differences, particularly its western and eastern regions, but not only. When the current crisis began in 2013, Ukraine had one state, but it was not a single people or a united nation.

General Terms of Peace Negotiations

INNOVATION IS KEY FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT

Europe should support advanced technologies and innovation to remain globally attractive. There are several measures that need to be taken to compete more successfully with some of the global destinations. Some of the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial cities have certain ‘hard’ features in common:

RAISING EUROPE’S COMPETITIVENESS

Decisive measures need to be adopted to raise Europe’s competitiveness and, therefore, support higher levels of productivity, employment and prosperity. Europe continues to record modest growth and, in some cases, record-high unemployment rates with no sign of a quick fix. Against this backdrop, Europe needs to bring the competitiveness agenda back to the centre of economic policy by addressing the factors that determine its economies’ level of productivity.

CONSOLIDATING AND EXPANDING THE BILATERAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT EU-AUSTRALIA RELATIONSHIP.

Economic and Trade Relations between the EU and Australia are based on the EU-Australia Partnership Framework of October 2008.

The Partnership Framework sets forth the following goals:

MAKING EU-BRAZIL BUSINESS RELATIONS MORE PRODUCTIVE

At the occasion of each EU-Brazil Summit (the last one took place in February 2014 in Brussels), business communities of both sides organize a Business Summit to assess bilateral economic relations, identify common interests and elaborate joint recommendations. The Business agenda is then summarized in a bilaterally agreed joint statement presented to the Authorities at the end of the meeting.

EU-Brazil Joint Action Plan (JAP) Agenda

From a business perspective, the current JAP agenda presents four main problems:

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