At its July plenary session, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an opinion on the latest annual report issued by the European Commission on the implementation of free trade agreements (FTAs), covering 2018. The EESC outlines the key role of trade in "promoting a sustainable economic recovery and allowing companies to rebuild and re-organise their disrupted value chains". At the same time, it regrets that civil society's monitoring work remains "largely absent" from the implementation report.

In its opinion, the EESC urges the EU institutions to draw important lessons from the current situation. These include the need to restore more resilient, diversified and responsible global supply chains and to develop stronger mechanisms "to deliver on a sustainable trade and investment agenda in all its dimensions".

The EESC particularly regrets that the work done by domestic advisory groups (DAGs) to monitor the impact of agreements on trade and sustainable development (TSD) commitments is "largely absent" from the report. The EESC calls for DAGs "to be strengthened to fulfil their monitoring tasks successfully" and expresses its concerns "given that TSD chapters currently lack binding enforcement tools".(dgf)