The EU’s top trade official released a 12-page plan examining the effective way to enforce and implement sustainable development chapters in EU free trade agreement. This document mainly accesses issues and reflects relevant feedbacks from the following aspects: implementation and enforcement, climate action and international deals, labour rights and responsible supply chains, civil society and EU institutions engagement. On implementation and enforcement section, the document excludes the use of “sanctions-based model” as an enforcement tool while it suggests improving enforcement and monitoring of the implementation as a priority. On climate action and international deals, the document suggests continuing grounding sustainable development chapters in the multilateral agreement context, such as the UN’s Paris Agreement on climate change, International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). It notes that cooperation with international bodies is necessary to ensure the better understanding of these multilateral deals. Climate action will continue to be a feature of its sustainable development chapters, and EU with its trade agreement partners will include more detailed provisions on climate action. On labour rights and responsible supply chains, the document suggests that EU could continue to include a wider scope of topics relating to labour rights, supply chain management in mind in its discussions and negotiation trade deals with its partners. EU has using this approach in its negotiations with third country and is working on a project with ILO and OECD concerning responsible business conduct in supply chains. On civil society and EU institutions engagement, the document provides relevant suggestions for better implementation of sustainable development chapters. Domestic advisory groups of civil groups could play a part in assessing the whole picture of the sustainability of EU trade deals rather than the chapter alone. A easier way to coordinate among EU institutions and member states should be provided as further steps.

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