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The way in which bargaining mandates are granted to the Commission for the purpose of leading the European Union’s commercial negotiations make it a unique negotiator. Press coverage of the negotiation instructions has tended to play down their value and to report the actual oral instructions of the mandate, which are more complex to interpret. The contents of mandates revealed at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 show a Commission that is concentrated on broad offensive goals to the detriment of its “red lines.”