Month: March 2026

The European Union and Australia have concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement, the European Commission announced in March 2026, eight years after talks began in July 2018. The deal is the latest in a series of agreements the EU has struck in the Indo-Pacific region, following similar accords with Indonesia in September 2025 and India in January 2026.

The agreement is expected to eliminate more than 99% of tariffs on EU exports to Australia, with machinery, motor vehicles and chemicals among the immediate beneficiaries from the day the deal enters into force. The EU and Australia already trade more than €89.2 billion in goods and services annually, supporting 460,000 jobs across the EU. Annual duty savings for EU exporters are projected to reach up to €1 billion, with EU exports forecast to rise 33% over the next decade and EU GDP to increase by €4 billion by 2030.

Services, digital and financial access

Beyond goods, EU companies will gain improved access to Australian markets in professional and business services, maritime transport and financial services. The agreement also establishes rules on data flows and prohibits data localisation requirements — a significant step for digital and technology firms operating across both jurisdictions.

Food and farming

EU farmers will gain new export opportunities as Australia eliminates tariffs on cheese, wine, chocolate, biscuits and breads. Sensitive EU agricultural sectors — including beef, sheep and goat meat, sugar, rice and certain dairy products — are protected through import limits and a safeguard mechanism that allows the EU to respond quickly if a surge in Australian imports causes difficulties for European producers.

The deal also protects EU geographical indications, meaning products such as Champagne and Parmigiano Reggiano can only be marketed under those names when genuinely produced in their designated regions. The agreement covers 165 agricultural and food products, 231 spirit drinks and more than 1,600 EU wine geographical indications under a modernised bilateral wine agreement.

Critical raw materials

Australia is a major producer of aluminium, lithium and manganese — materials essential to EU industry, particularly for clean energy and digital technologies. The agreement reduces or eliminates tariffs on these materials and strengthens cooperation on supply chain security, addressing the EU’s heavy dependence on imports of critical raw materials at a time of rising global demand. Special provisions require that extraction is carried out sustainably, and both sides have agreed to co-finance related projects.

Sustainability commitments

The agreement includes legally binding commitments on climate, labour rights and environmental protection. Both parties commit to upholding core International Labour Organisation principles, implementing the Paris Climate Agreement, combating deforestation and illegal wildlife trade, and applying EU health and safety rules to all imports from Australia. Trade in green goods and services, including renewable energy and energy-efficient products, is also liberalised under the deal.

What happens next

The agreement must now go through a ratification process involving legal revision, approval by the Council of the EU, signing by both parties, consent from the European Parliament and a final Council decision. Once Australia also completes its own ratification, the deal can enter into force.

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Photo credit: Caleb, Unsplash 

A new private membership platform dedicated to master artisans and their patrons launched in Monaco on Tuesday 24th March, with Alessia Demetz presenting ADM Club to press and guests in the wine cellars of the Hôtel de Paris — a setting she chose deliberately for what it represents.

“These underground spaces house some of the rarest and most celebrated bottles on the planet, where value is not proclaimed aloud, but recognised in silence,” she said. “To me, that is luxury. To know, but not to boast.”

ADM Club is designed as a curated network connecting master artisans, designers, collectors and patrons of the arts — what Demetz describes as a Renaissance court reimagined for the present day. The platform is not a marketplace in the conventional sense, but a membership environment where quality is the shared code and discretion the founding principle.

A nomadic founder with a clear vision

Demetz was born in Moldova to Italian-Austrian-Russian-Moldovan parents and spent her childhood moving between European countries — Russia, Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Austria. She speaks seven languages and studied architecture in Austria, finance in Geneva, business design in Italy and brand management in Paris, before settling in Monaco a decade ago.

It was the Principality, she says, that gave her the right conditions to build what she had long envisioned. “Monaco doesn’t push me down, like other big cities do. Instead, it lifts me up. It feels like a standalone independent entity, outside the structures and constraints of the rest of Europe. It’s a place where you can express yourself, a chance to be unique.”

The life of Princess Grace was, she explains, an important reference point. “Her timeless elegance, her understatement — those are qualities I value and admire. Her essence encapsulates what it is to be feminine, powerful and free. I want ADM Club to build on that legacy; to sharpen the allure of beauty and a life lived to its elegant best.”

A rejection of label culture

The launch was also an implicit critique of the direction luxury has taken. Demetz does not name brands, but her argument is that the label attached to an object has become a substitute for the human story behind it. “You can’t find yourself only through branded products; you need to find your own identity,” she said. “When you buy directly from an artisan using ADM Club, you’re getting much more than what you see in front of you. It’s intimate. When I touch something, I feel the threads of its story. When I meet a producer, I see the mirror of them in their product. It sparks empathy.”

She frames the mission in explicitly cultural terms. “I’m passionate about giving artisans a voice, so their identity isn’t stripped from the pieces they create. Every tiny component of a piece has a person behind it, and every person has given of their time, passion and energy.”

The club invests directly in its artisans through content creation and artistic direction, while members — founding, honorary and active — contribute financially to sustaining the ecosystem. “Our mission is to build bridges between those who excel in creation and those who genuinely seek to receive, understand, and pass on excellence — all within a protected, carefully curated space, away from noise and superficiality, focused on what truly matters,” said Demetz.

An artisan in the room

Present at the launch was Stefano Conticelli, a leather maker from Umbria whose work is among the first to be represented through ADM Club. His presence was, Demetz said, the clearest illustration of what the platform is trying to be — a place where artisans are not a footnote to the luxury conversation, but central to it.

Conticelli’s work speaks for itself. For the Hôtel de Paris, he recently designed a sculptural tableside bag holder inspired by a stylised horse — a piece created in the context of a friendship with Alain Ducasse that began with the gift of a piece called the ‘Cavallina Steph’ and has since extended to leather-bound covers for books and menus in Ducasse’s restaurants around the world, transforming what might otherwise be functional objects into works of craft.

Royal patronage

The launch was punctuated by the presence of Prince Michel of Yugoslavia, an honorary member of ADM Club, whose patronage Demetz described as a responsibility she accepts “with humility, integrity, and commitment”.

“I place my full trust in ADM Club and its founder, confident that they will provide their members with impeccable quality and an experience that genuinely enhances their well-being,” press Michel told the gathered press.

Monaco as the natural home

Alessia Demetz closed the presentation by connecting ADM Club to a longer historical tradition — from the courts of Isabella d’Este and the Medicis to Louis XIV’s Versailles — in which excellence grew through the gathering of creators, artisans and patrons around shared values. Monaco, she argued, is the natural continuation of that lineage.

“To me, integrity is something you’re not willing to sell yourself for. It’s those values that you believe in so strongly they’re an intrinsic part of your soul. I have a path with ADM Club, and a responsibility to the artisans I champion. It’s a mission, and I’ve devoted every part of my life to fulfilling it.”

ADM Club is available at adm.club and through its app on Google Play and the Apple Store.

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