Agreement on EU anti-coercion instrument

By
Amelie Richter

The EU institutions have agreed on a new instrument that will allow Europe to respond more effectively to economic coercion attempts from non-EU countries like China. The EU Parliament, the EU Commission and the EU Council of Member States (the so-called trilogue) negotiated a political agreement on early Tuesday morning. The Anti-Coercion Instrument, ACI for short, is designed to allow the European Union to take countermeasures against countries that attempt to use economic dependencies to exert political pressure on one or more EU members. However, the instrument is only to be used as a last resort – when dialogue has failed to yield results.