EU-US TTIP negotiations

The European Parliament's trade committee today adopted a resolution on the parliament's position with regard to the ongoing EU-US TTIP trade and investment negotiations*. The resolution was adopted with a large majority and, crucially, failed to include any criticism of the controversial ISDS investor protection mechanism. After the vote, Greens/EFA trade spokesperson Yannick Jadot said:

"This resolution does not reflect the ever growing concern among the public and civil society with the TTIP negotiations and their overt corporate agenda. Instead of using the resolution to help give voice to this concern, Socialist MEPs have rowed in behind the centre-right and ensured a tame and sanitised outcome, notably on the controversial issue of an ISDS investor to state dispute settlement mechanism. This resolution remains a proposal from the trade committee however and we hope Socialist MEPs will rediscover their critical outlook when parliament votes as a whole in its June plenary session.

"There is a growing public outcry against enabling corporations to use extra-juridical tribunals to challenge state authorities and democratically-decided legislation. This was reflected in the votes of a number of other parliamentary committees, which adopted opinions on TTIP that included outright rejection of ISDS (1). The European Parliament is the institution which represents the voice of European citizens and we hope this legitimate criticism of ISDS will be reflected in the final resolution adopted by MEPs. This is crucial for the democratic credibility of the EP."

* TTIP - Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

(1) The European Parliament committees on employment, environment, legal affairs, constitutional affairs and petitions all adopted opinion reports, which called for the rejection of ISDS.