The European Commission staved off a French-led coup to cut short its mandate on international trade negotiations, but did make concessions on greater transparency in its handling of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.
"Nothing has changed", trade commissioner Peter Mandelson claimed after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday (18 October). "If the council [member states] had wanted to change the mandate it could have done so today".
His remarks came after...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.