Acknowledgements
The publication of this volume on the law and practice of the EU’s Common Commercial Policy was made possible by the generosity, dedication and patience of all the contributing authors. Everything good about this book is the result of their enthusiasm, expertise, intellectual work and – as often the case with comprehensive volumes – patience: we are deeply grateful to all of them. Unless indicated otherwise, the chapters reflect the state of play as of January 2020.
Without the generous financial support of Van Bael & Bellis and vvgb Advocaten, the Brussels kick-off for this project, a workshop at which draft versions of most chapters included were presented and discussed, would not have been possible. The workshop also benefitted from the generous support from ceps, the European Institute from Ghent University and the University of Bern’s Institute for European and International Economic Law & World Trade Institute. We are also indebted to former Commissioner for Trade and wto Director-General Pascal Lamy and Maria Åsenius, former Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Cecilia Malmström for their well-received keynote speeches on that occasion.
Chairman Bernd Lange and Director-General Sabine Weyand accepted our invitation to write forewords to this book. We are very grateful for their stimulating contribution and their kind words.
This book benefitted greatly from the editorial support by the Institute of European and International Economic Law team, consisting of Rachel Liechti, Laura Alper, Laurianne Junod, Andreas Gschwend and Dominik Reichle, as well as from Brill’s seur team, in particular Anipa Baitakova, Ingeborg van der Laan and Marie Sheldon.
Both editors would like to thank their admired teacher Marc Maresceau for his continued support for this project. Last but by no means least, the editors would like to thank Jacques Bourgeois and Inge Govaere. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems clear that their kind invitation and hosting of Michael Hahn as Marcel-Storme-Visiting Professor and introduction to Guillaume Van der Loo in Ghent was the start of this project.
Michael Hahn
Guillaume Van der Loo