Frontloaded scrubbing
Legal “scrubbing” — a time-consuming process that ensures both parties agree on the precise meaning of a text and not just the overall commitments — would be “partly frontloaded during negotiations” and take place in parallel with the Commission’s adoption of the text, as well its presentation to the Council.
The streamlined procedure reflects an “urgent need to diversify our trade partners” and to reap “the benefits of our trade agreements without delay,” the Commission writes in its seven-page presentation, adding this would only be applied to trade agreements that fall under the exclusive competence of the EU.
The EU’s recent agreements with India and Indonesia would be test cases of this accelerated procedure.
“It will be taken up on legal scrubbing on a fast-track basis as we discussed … and translated into 24 languages simultaneously. We do hope that we should be able to celebrate the entry into force of this agreement within calendar 2026,” Indian trade chief Piyush Goyal said after leaders sealed the EU-India trade deal last month.
Prior agreements with New Zealand and, most recently, the Latin American Mercosur bloc, had to be translated into all 24 EU languages before they could be formally signed.
The plan, which is still in its early stages, could set up “linguistic difficulties” amongst EU countries, three EU diplomats said, for instance if some large countries insist they require a translation alongside the English one.
Thorsten Mumme in Berlin contributed to this report.