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EUROPEAN SERVICES FORUM

ESF

Members of the European Services Forum have adopted the following Set of principles: 1. In the coming decades, issues related to international trade in services will present challenges to the multilateral trading system that at least equal, in importance and difficulty, tariff and non-tariff barriers to the development of trade in goods. 2. While bilateral and regional agreements and initiatives can play a useful supportive role, a firm and widely supported multilateral agreement remains the ultimate goal of services negotiations within the WTO. 3. Services and other services-related issues (such as investment and public procurement) should be negotiated in all international trade negotiations, with as much emphasis that the one given to trade in goods. 4. International trade in services negotiations should create much improved opportunities for profitable international business. To that end, they should: • be ambitious in their goals for real liberalisation, (...)

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Jorge Vitorino (Head of Unit Trade)

9 Dec 2025 · Exchange of views on main developments in EU trade in services policy

Meeting with Sofia Munoz Albarran (Director Trade) and

15 Oct 2025 · Interplay between the trade anti-dumping and anti-subsidies regulations and the EU Regulation on Foreign Subsidies (FSR) to ensure that the two regimes combined deliver their maximal effect, complementing each other, while remaining accessible.

Meeting with Jorge Vitorino (Head of Unit Trade)

15 Oct 2025 · Exchange of views on EU trade in services policy and on ESF’s 25th Anniversary event

Response to International Digital Strategy

21 May 2025

The European Services believes the EUs International Digital Strategy should focus on: 1. Championing multilateralism In the current geopolitical context, the EU needs to support the global rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as much as possible and continue to protect the multilateral system. The EU should specifically prioritise support for the WTOs work on digital trade, notably by: - Keeping as its highest priority the extension of the Moratorium on Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions. This is absolutely crucial so that a quarter of world trade remains absent of tariff, particularly at a time when tariffs on goods are coming back, putting the global economy under stress. ESF welcomes the extension of the Moratorium for two more years and call upon the EU to continue to take the utmost efforts to keep these rules under the ambit of the multilateral trading system as has been the case since 1998. The Abu Dhabi declaration clearly allows the WTO membership to do so by consensus. - Pursuing its leading role to incorporate the Joint Statement Initiative on E-Commerce into the core rules of the WTO. 2. Maintaining openness in digital trade Digital trade is now critical to all sectors of the economy, including to our goods supply chains. Indeed, modern supply chains are digital supply chains. From autos, industrial machinery, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and aerospace manufacturing, companies utilise digital technologies to maintain and maximise their global supply chain operations. For example, new cloud and AI applications are being used by companies to optimise supply chain operations, reduce waste and emissions, and strengthen regulatory compliance. At the heart of digital supply chains is the free flow of data. They are the lifeblood of all businesses operating in the global economy. The provision of such services depends on the ability for businesses to transfer data across borders, and any protectionist policies restricting it (e.g. forced data localisation) can significantly impeded job creation, economic competitiveness and innovation. This is all the more important as Europe wants to become a leading player in technologies like AI. This is why ESF urges the EU to maintain its core principle as an open digital economy: the key to EU leadership in digital resides in policies that focus on diversifying supply chains, improving market access for digital services with more trading partners, and rejecting unjustified protectionism that only trigger more retaliatory measures and reduce opportunities for EU businesses. Such an approach, combined with the EUs current and welcomed efforts to cut red tape for businesses by simplifying burdensome legislation (i.e. Omnibus proposals), will allow Europe to build open strategic autonomy. 3. Pursuing more digital trade agreements globally ESF welcomes the Digital Partnerships with Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, and further encourage negotiations of digital trade binding rules on cross-border data flows with these countries. The agreements with Japan and Singapore have set a benchmark, and we also welcome the recent deal reached with South Korea. We encourage further similar results with Canada, but also with other countries with which the EU has already signed an FTA but not advanced rules on digital trade, like Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. As the digitalisation of the economy spreads across all sectors, ESF believes that every modern trade agreement should include provisions: - Allowing the free flow of data across borders, as well as prohibiting data localisation and mandatory location of computing facilities. - Protecting source code and algorithms. - Promoting technology choice. - Prohibiting customs duties - Prohibiting customs duties on electronic transmissions. - Facilitating the adoption of frameworks to manage cybersecurity risks. - Promoting mechanisms to ensure interoperability of personal data prot
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Meeting with Agata Gerba (Head of Unit Trade)

20 May 2025 · Informal Meeting between the European Services Forum (ESF) and the Council of the European Union’s Trade Policy Committee on Services and Investment (TPC-SI)

Meeting with Bernd Biervert (Cabinet of Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič), Chiara Galiffa (Cabinet of Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič)

1 Apr 2025 · Importance of trade in services for the EU. Introduce the work of ESF.

Meeting with Piotr Rydzkowski (Head of Unit Trade) and BUSINESSEUROPE and

18 Mar 2025 · CSD Contact Group meeting-Overview of Trade priorities and rolling calendar

Meeting with Karin Karlsbro (Member of the European Parliament) and Almega

24 Sept 2024 · Presentation av tjänstesektorn

Response to Evaluation and review of the Regulation concerning the screening of foreign direct investments

22 Apr 2024

As an introductory remark, we would like to highlight the importance of foreign direct investment for the EU economy, and in particular for the European services sectors. The EU is the worlds biggest recipient (US$ 11.1 trillion inward stocks 25.2% of global FDI ) of foreign direct investment. According to Eurostat, in 2021, 79.8% of total EU Inward FDI was invested in services sectors . It is considered that 16% of EU total jobs are working in foreign controlled businesses; i.e. 34 million jobs in the EU depend on Inward FDI, around 70% of those businesses are services companies, with a majority of SMEs. The EU economy is very much dependent on the free flow of capital, that nourishes growth and innovation, and allow the EU to remain competitive in an increasingly complex world. We would like you and your team to keep these figures in mind when formulating the EU policy on foreign direct investment. The EU must remain an open and attractive destination for trade and investments. ESF agrees however that the risks related to security and public order stemming from certain types of investments need to be addressed effectively, in a targeted and proportionate manner. Therefore, ESF welcomes the Commissions proposal for a new Regulation on the screening of foreign investments in the Union, published on 24 January 2024. We consider that the proposal is in general well balanced but believe further work is needed to ensure that the revised screening mechanism will not reduce the EUs attractiveness or create protectionist barriers. In addition to the high number of notifications, the current Regulation has also generated large inconsistencies across Member States on substantive, procedural and jurisdictional issues (e.g., filing thresholds, review timelines, covered transactions, presumptions of approval/denial). A key benefit of the Commissions new proposal which would set minimum standards for national investment screening procedures could be to minimize procedural divergences and ensure robust due process safeguards across the EU, levelling the playing field for investors. However, some of the minimum standards set in the proposal arent sufficiently specific and targeted to achieve this harmonisation (see comments below regarding Annex II). We call upon the Commission to reduce the administrative burden generated by the Regulation for the businesses impacted as far as possible. We are concerned that the number of notifications will likely increase significantly since 1) all EU Member States will now have to set up a national mechanism, and 2) the scope of the authorisation requirements has been considerably expanded to new fields. We are also concerned that the authorisation process for the investments in companies participating in projects or programmes of Union interest listed in Annex I, like Horizon, etc. many of which pose no security risk will generate significant administrative costs and delay investments that are vital for the EUs competitiveness. In order to minimize the economic costs of the EUs investment screening procedures, the screening criteria will need to be narrower, clearer and transparent. The proposal envisages as well to screen single foreign investment transaction that might imply multiple Member States across the EU.This will result in obliging filings in multi-jurisdictional on the same day (Article 5§3). We call on the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and on the EU Member States to ensure that the review of the Regulation aims: at reducing the notification of non-essential cases at the national level, at bringing down the number of unnecessary reviews by the European Commission and other Member States under the cooperation mechanism, at limiting as far as possible the reporting requirements for EU companies and foreign investors, and at protecting confidential information in the notifications. . at ensuring an international cooperation on that matter.
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Meeting with Cristina Rueda Catry (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis), Kevin Keary (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

1 Mar 2023 · Bilateral trade agenda, WTO e-commerce

Response to New Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean

7 Feb 2023

The European Services Forum (ESF) welcomes the opportunity to express some views on the New Agenda for EU relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. The European Services Forum is the voice of the European services sectors in international trade and investment negotiations. The Latin America and the Caribbean Region share many values with the European Union on many aspects like history, culture, politics and economy. EU should remain more than ever actively engaged in Latin America and the Caribbean in the current geopolitical context (Russia aggression of Ukraine, food and energy crisis and general inflation in the world, trade tensions between US, EU & China, etc.). ESF therefore strongly supports the new Agenda with Latin America and the Caribbean. The EU must remain committed to promote ever closer links with the countries of the region and work with them towards a better cooperation in areas that are critical for a sustainable economic model like climate change and fight against pollution and deforestation, but as well in areas like the support of multilateralism, respect of the rule of law, human rights, democracy. We limit our contribution to the trade pillar of the region-to-region relationship. It is important to recall that the EU is the biggest international investor in the Latin America and the Caribbean. EUs foreign direct investment stock (FDI) was about 750 billion in 2019. In terms of trade in services, EU exports to the 15 countries of Latin America with which the EU has concluded FTAs reached 44 billion in 2021, while the imports were more than 21 billion, which makes an EU surplus of 22 billion. This group of countries makes the 5th EU trading partner in trade in services, which is significant and gives a perspective of the importance of this region for the European Union. The EU has concluded many trade agreements with the countries of the region. And many of them have significantly improve the market access of European services businesses, notably the EPA with the Cariforum (15 countries), the FTA with Columbia and Peru. The FTA with Ecuador and with the six Central American countries have not delivered much for the services sectors and should be reviewed if and when the opportunity comes. In general, most of these free trade agreements are of the old generation and ESF would support a revision towards more modern FTAs with better market access, better regulatory cooperation commitments and a new sustainable development chapter. In that spirit, ESF has followed closely the negotiations of the revision of the FTA with Mexico and Chile and welcome the results for the services sectors. These revisions of FTAs concluded respectively with Mexico in 2018, and with Chile in 2022) will effectively provide better market access and clearer and safer domestic regulatory environment for European services businesses operating in these countries. More importantly, the negotiations between the EU and the four countries of Mercosur were finally concluded in principle in 2019 after twenty years of talks. But none of these three deals are yet ratified and entered into force. The ratification of these agreements is the key priority for the European Services Forum. These deals play an important role towards maintaining the strong position of the EU as a trade and investment partner in the region. They will provide a new source of diversification for trade in goods and services at a time where geopolitics shows the absolute need to have alternative in the supply chains. These agreements will also offer a real alternative to these countries which are approached by other players that are less sensitive of our shared values. In summary, for ESF, and focussing on the trade pillar only, the New Agenda for EU relations with Latin America and the Caribbean should look at i) ratifying the trade agreements with Chile, Mercosur and Mexico, and ii) reviewing the existing FTAs with the other trading partners of the reg
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Meeting with Tomas Baert (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen)

3 Feb 2023 · State of play on key EU trade policy priorities; trade policy pillar of the Green Deal Industrial Plan

Meeting with Maria Asenius (Cabinet of Vice-President Cecilia Malmström), Pedro Velasco Martins (Cabinet of Vice-President Cecilia Malmström)

9 Feb 2018 · Importance of services in the economie and trade agreements

Meeting with Kaius Kristian Hedberg (Cabinet of Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska) and BUSINESSEUROPE and

7 Dec 2017 · Data Flows in Trade Agreements

Meeting with Xavier Coget (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

7 Dec 2017 · Exchange on EU trade policy in the field of services

Meeting with Cecilia Malmström (Commissioner)

13 Oct 2017 · Trade in services

Meeting with Jon Nyman (Cabinet of Vice-President Cecilia Malmström)

26 Apr 2017 · Commissioners possible participation at a future event

Meeting with Kaius Kristian Hedberg (Cabinet of Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska), Rolf Carsten Bermig (Cabinet of Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska) and

16 Sept 2016 · digital trade

Meeting with Christian Burgsmueller (Cabinet of Vice-President Cecilia Malmström)

27 Oct 2015 · EU's trade strategy; TTIP

Meeting with Jean-Luc Demarty (Director-General Trade)

31 Mar 2015 · New trade policy strategy, TTIP, TiSA and other bilateral negotiations

Meeting with Cecilia Malmström (Commissioner) and

2 Feb 2015 · Speech at Business Alliance for TTIP's Welcome Reception