Insights

When the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) was created following a summit in June 2021, both sides viewed it primarily as a means of reinvigorating a badly damaged relationship, following the failure of the TTIP negotiations, the tantrums of the Trump years and the fall-out over AUKUS. 

Nearly two years on from President Biden’s election victory, the ill-tempered clashes between US and EU officials over trade, climate change and security during the last decade can appear a historical anomaly. Leaders on both sides are now increasingly aligned in diagnosing the threats posed by Russia and China and looking to multilateral bodies such as NATO or the UN to…

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, delivered her third state of the European Union speech on September 14th before the European Parliament, giving sight of her priorities for 2023 and using a rare public platform to speak more directly to audiences beyond the immediate EU stakeholders. 

The next major point of friction in transatlantic trade relations is emerging around policies to support the domestic electric vehicles industry. The EU has raised grievances around the potential discriminatory effects of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States – which includes tax credits and incentives for US battery and electric vehicle…

Following an agreement among EU foreign ministers in late August, on September 9th the European Council adopted a recommendation by the European Commission to suspend the 2007 EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement. As of September 12th, Russian applicants for short-term visas face a lengthier, harder and much costlier process. Similar restrictions for long-term visas…

The UN General Assembly’s High-Level General Debate (i.e leaders' speeches) starts on Tuesday, 20 September, facing a hot war in Europe, a dialogue of the deaf between the world’s two superpowers and an accelerating global decline in democratic norms. Some of the lesser-known commitments set out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights – for example, “the right to a standard…

The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is a moment of great sadness and reflection. For many in Britain she was the most prominent and permanent figure in their lives beyond their immediate family - and I would include myself in this category. Her reign was of historic proportions. She served so long her first prime minister, Winston Churchill, was born over a…

This week on Top in Tech, Conan D'Arcy speaks to Roger Taylor, former Chair of both the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation and the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. They talk about what governments get wrong about AI, the future of the UK's digital ethics strategies, and what lessons can be drawn from past mistakes in the administrative use of…

Commenting on Europe’s gas crisis, the prime minister of Belgium recently said that Europe would face “terrible winters” for the next five to ten years. The warning by the Belgian premier is echoed by the chief executive of Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas company, who has said that Europe may need to ration access to energy for several years as it weans itself off…

Welcome to the final episode of our mini-series exploring the NHS's adoption of Integrated Care Systems, presented by the GC Health and Life Sciences practice.

As the long summer days start drawing to a close and Brussels gradually awakens from recess, attention is shifting towards the EU’s policy agenda for the autumn. While digital policy has been a cornerstone of the current Commission’s legislative agenda so far, there is a sense that tech is set for a downgrade as other challenges – above all the war in Ukraine, inflation…

Welcome to the Global Month Ahead, a new Global Counsel podcast highlighting the key events in the month to come. In each episode, Global Macro Associate Director Isabelle Trick will hear from different members of the GC team to preview the month's stories before they are in the headlines.

As European governments reflect on lessons from covid-19 to improve pandemic preparedness, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (EU) recently reached a provisional agreement on a new EU law on serious cross-border threats to health (CBTH). The legislation, which is part of a package of regulations for a European Health Union that aims to reinforce…

This week on Top in Tech, Conan D'Arcy is joined by Associate Director Max von Thun and EU Policy Practice Director Ana Martínez to discuss the past year in EU tech policy. Has the Ukraine conflict upended the European Commission's focus on tech, and what have been the big policy achievements so far?

Welcome to the second episode of a new mini-series exploring the NHS's adoption of Integrated Care Systems, presented by the Global Counsel Health and Life Sciences practice.

Kenyan elections have a troublesome past. In 2007, post-election violence saw over 1,200 people killed and triggered a new constitution which introduced the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). But violence again marred elections in 2013 and 2017, with the latter declared "invalid, null and void"...

Few people have been as pivotal in the history of US tech and telecom regulation as Blair Levin.

At a private meeting in Beijing before the covid-19 pandemic, President Xi Jinping confided to a visiting foreign guest that there were two things which kept him awake at night. The first, China falling into the middle-income trap. The second, China going to war with the US “by accident”. The latter concern of Xi could not be more pertinent in the wake of…