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The EU on Wednesday said it would impose stricter rules on protecting the environment and labour rights in future trade deals, as Brussels attempts to revive Europe's global trade ambitions.
Some EU member states are increasingly frustrated that trade negotiations with countries such as Australia and Indonesia have become bogged down amid doubts on the benefits of free trade in certain bloc countries, most notably France.
Critics of trade deals argue that the EU doesn't do enough to guarantee international standards on labour rights, or to ensure that commitments to the Paris climate agreement are adequately upheld in trade pacts.
To dispel doubts, the European Commission said it would from now on give itself the power to apply import tariffs on countries that violate trade deal provisions on labour rights or the Paris deal.
"We need to make sure that sustainability commitments in EU trade deals don't remain only on paper -- they must happen on the ground," said EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
"So if you sign a deal with us, we need to have the tools to ensure you will deliver on what you said," he added.
The provision would have to be accepted by both parties in the trade deal, which may be a big ask for countries the EU is currently engaged in talks with, including India, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia.
The EU has struggled in recent years to secure the backing of all 27 member states on trade deals, which were once a central policy for the bloc.
Of particular concern in France is a negotiated deal with the South American trade bloc Mercosur that has yet to be signed as several countries demand concrete commitments from Brazil against the deforestation of the Amazon.
"We have blocked and continue to block the Mercosur deal because it is not to the sustainability standards we could expect," said French Trade Minister Franck Riester.
But Riester praised the commission's latest proposal that would allow the EU to look at future trade accords "with a new perspective".
"It is a way to engage our partners. It can have a leverage effect on our partners' policies," he said.
Fifteen member states at the urging of Sweden this week sent a letter to Dombrovskis warning that the slow advancement of trade deals among Asian countries threatened to leave Europe's economy behind, and that bilateral trade deals needed to be put back on track.
"We do hope that this will help to relaunch our free trade agreement agenda," an EU official said on condition of anonymity.
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