@article{article_1792846, title={EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN CETA NEGOTIATIONS: EXPLORING AGENT’S AUTONOMY}, journal={Marmara Üniversitesi Avrupa Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi}, volume={33}, pages={1–21}, year={2025}, DOI={10.29228/mjes.464}, author={Uyar Okcu, Esra}, keywords={Avrupa Birliği, Avrupa Komisyonu, AB Ticareti, CETA, Asil-vekil Yaklaşımı}, abstract={As the world trade agenda began to cover “beyond the border” issues in the 1980s, the European Union (EU) gradually broadened the scope of its trade policy and adopted a more complex decision-making mechanism involving multiple actors. In the current EU institutional setting, the European Commission is empowered by the Council of the European Union to start a negotiation process with a trading partner. Once signed, an international trade agreement can only be concluded by the EU if it is approved by both the Council and the European Parliament. Although the Commission is responsible for executing the common commercial policy, its autonomy may be limited by the Council/member states and/or Parliament during trade negotiations. This article investigates the Commission’s autonomy in the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations from a principal-agent approach. It analyzes the conflictual dynamics of Council-Commission and Parliament-Commission principal-agent relations, focusing on investment and intellectual property negotiations. The article reveals that EU member states and the European Parliament restricted the European Commission’s autonomy and changed its initial position on these two controversial issues.}, number={1}, publisher={Marmara Üniversitesi}