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Brussels – In 2025, some journalists described the conclusion of EU free trade agreements with third countries with the term “turbo charge”, that is turbocharger. This was confirmed to the TASR Brussels correspondent by Slovak European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič, who contributed significantly to these agreements. This year Šefčovič has his schedule set to the same intense pace.
“Last year several people described those trade negotiations as ‘turbo charge’. That there was a dramatic acceleration of trade negotiations between the Union and other countries,” explained Maroš Šefčovič. Journalists found an appropriate technical reference in the fact that, just as in combustion engines turbochargers ensure an increase in overall performance, Šefčovič also contributed to the success of the trade negotiations.
The European Commissioner reminded TASR, after the conclusion of what is so far the largest trade agreement ever between the EU and India, that the year 2025 is associated with three major agreements – with four member countries of the Mercosur group, with Indonesia and, finally, last year’s negotiations also successfully resulted in an agreement with India.
“These three agreements basically help cover more than 50 percent of European exports,” he explained. He added that the Union is still waiting for the ratification of the trade agreement with Mexico. The ratification of the agreement, whose modernization both sides agreed on in January last year after ten years of negotiations, should be completed during 2026.
Šefčovič indicated that his program for this year also has every chance of becoming a “turbo charge”. “Negotiations with Asian countries are continuing. There is Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand. Furthermore, our Australian partners have also expressed interest in reopening and speeding up trade negotiations, and we are also making good progress in negotiations with the United Arab Emirates,” he added.
According to him, the EC considers the negotiations with the United Arab Emirates to be key also because, if they are successful, the other countries of this region grouped in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia – want to join them. The EU is the second largest trading partner of the GCC countries and in 2023 their mutual trade reached the level of 170 billion euros. A new and strengthened trade and investment partnership between both sides can multiply this turnover.
“This is the working agenda for the coming period, but also a summary of three important agreements for the period since I took up this new mandate,” summed up Šefčovič of his work at the head of EU trade policy, for which he has been responsible since 1 December 2024. (31 January)