Who Governs European Economic Security? Actors, Institutions and the Transformation of EU Trade Policy

Since the Juncker Commission’s call to overcome Europe’s “age of naivety”, growing academic attention has been devoted to the transformation of EU trade policy and, more broadly, to the EU’s response to the weaponisation of economic interdependence. Concepts such as geopoliticisation, geoeconomics, strategic autonomy and the geopolitical turn have captured the discursive transformations, policy innovations and increasing securitisation of European economic relations. Yet, despite this rich academic debate, the governance of economic security itself remains comparatively fragmented across different strands of the literature.
This panel proposes to shift the focus from “what is European economic security?” to “who governs European economic security?” Such a perspective draws attention to the actors, institutions and decision-making processes through which economic vulnerabilities are identified, translated into political priorities and ultimately addressed through policy instruments. Economic security increasingly cuts across traditional policy boundaries, connecting trade policy with foreign and security policy, industrial policy, investment, finance and technological governance. Understanding this transformation therefore requires greater attention to agenda-setting, institutional interactions, Member State preferences, implementation practices and the potential redistribution of authority generated by the economic-security agenda.
The panel welcomes contributions examining the governance of European economic security from diverse theoretical, empirical and methodological perspectives. Papers may address its implications for European integration and institutional balance; transformations of EU trade policy; interactions between supranational institutions and Member States; or the growing intersections between economic and security policies. Empirical contributions may focus, inter alia, on anti-coercion policy, investment screening, trade defence instruments, free trade agreements, export controls, financial and technological security, sanctions, or other policies associated with the EU’s expanding economic-security agenda.
By bringing these perspectives together, the panel seeks to move beyond treating economic security primarily as a new discourse or policy label and towards a better understanding of the political processes through which it is governed. In doing so, it aims to foster dialogue across currently fragmented research agendas and contribute to broader debates on the transformation of EU trade policy, European integration and the changing relationship between economic openness and security.