In the face of growing political hurdles, mounting popular criticism and increasing technical complexity the agencies and actors involved in the TTIP negotiations must prove exceptionally resilient or negotiations must risk coming to nothing. As such, despite political hostility and uncertain outcomes, negotiating institutions on either side of the Atlantic must see this latest chapter in the transatlantic political agenda survive long enough for negotiations to bounce back from existing technical hurdles and innovative to transcend new ones. As mega-FTAs become an ever more important component of the EU’s (and the US’) trade and growth strategies, understanding their capacity to overcome obstacles to the lifting of non-tariff barriers and the promotion of preferred regulatory choices becomes a key question when considering the future prospects of Europe within the global economy. To contribute to said discussion this panel will offer an interdisciplinary (Comparative Politics, International Political Economy and Legal Studies) of some of the key regulatory concerns currently facing the TTIP negotiations. Ultimately, the panel will offer a tentative answer to both the question of the future prospects of the TTIP negotiations themselves as well as insights into the adaptableness of Europe’s global trade and growth strategy in the facing of re-asserted forms of geo-political and geo-economic competition