How can the EU contribute to better transnational economic governance?

Global challenges today require integrated and coordinated responses through transnational and European cooperation. In this paper, we analyze challenges to transnational and European governance in the areas of global value chains, climate change and corporate taxation. We analyse the needs for transnational governance in these areas, the obstacles that transnational governance in these areas faces, and propose institutional reforms and new policies in each of the three policy areas to strengthen the contribution of the European Union to transnational governance and to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The ultimate goal of the paper is to propose a strategic vision towards a sustainability path for Europe, to lead by example. Specifically, we propose the EU to mainstream the ‘Sustainability Impact Assessment’ process, so that it expands from being a trade agreement-specific tool to become a tool that can assess compatibility of all proposed international agreements, directives and regulations with the Sustainable Development Goals, including in the areas of global value chains, climate change and corporate taxation.

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