Link, or Not to Link, This Is the Question: Environmental Provisions under the New Generation of TSD Chapters in EU FTAs

Trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapters so far included in EU free trade agreements (FTAs) have been considered to have a mere promotional aim. However, in 2022 the European Commission announced a new approach towards TSD chapters in FTAs. This new attitude raises doubts not only about the breadth of the scope of the common commercial policy (CCP), and so on the need for the new generation of TSD chapters to be grounded on an ad hoc legal basis, but also on the nature of the environmental component of TSD chapters’ provisions. The article concludes that the new approach towards TSD chapters seems to inaugurate an environmental conditionality policy, even if somehow ‘softened’.