INTRODUCTION

As part of the agreement to upgrade their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership, the EU and Korea signed the Free Trade Agreement and a new Framework Agreement in 2010. These agreements, together with other sectoral agreements, form part of the so-called ‘common institutional framework’ (CIF). The unique form of the EU-Korea CIF is the outcome of a compromise, accommodating the diverging demands of Korea and the EU. On the one hand, the EU wished to construct a unified framework, which placed the FTA in a wider context of overall bilateral relations, following the EU's Global Europe Strategy. On the other hand, the Korean government wished the FTA to be independent of political legal frameworks. The EU-Korea CIF reflects the demands of both sides, by establishing the specific agreements, including the FTA, as separate regimes. At the same time, the Framework Agreement organises those regimes into a unified and consistent governing system. There are two principal ways in which this is achieved.

First, the parties established an institutional interaction mechanism. Under this arrangement, the institutions established under the specific agreements of the CIF, including the FTA, are to report on their activities to the Joint Committee, which is the management institution of the Framework Agreement, and the CIF as a whole.