The purpose of the study is to elaborate on EU trade negotiations from an LRA perspective and to discuss how to meet the need for more transparency and democratic governance in the negotiation process of trade agreements.
At the epicentre of the study is the role of regions in increasing legitimacy of international trade agreements at regional and local level along with their role in contributing to the EU trade policy making by bringing up the citizens' concerns. The study includes the following elements: 1) an overview of the actual negative and positive impact of trade agreements at the regional and local level; 2) An analysis of the concerns that local and regional authorities would like to see addressed by EU trade policy-making and the way they believe this could happen; 3) A mapping of the ratification procedures of mixed agreements in Member States having regions with legislative powers and of the ratification procedures in the partner countries having regions with legislative powers; 4) Policy conclusions and reccomendations of measures capable of increasing transpareency and thus, public trust in EU trade policy making.