Multilateral Investment Court
little more than a rebranding exercise
The Council has approved the Commission's mandate to negotiate the establishment of a multilateral court for the settlement of investment disputes (MIC).
Greens/EFA co-president Ska Keller comments:
"This is little more than a re-branding exercise. Re-packaging the old system of investor privileges as a "court" system does not alter the fundamental problems within. Every citizen and small enterprise has to go to a normal court when they claim their rights, it is unfair that multinational companies should get their very own justice system. The Council has only copy and pasted the provisions from the CETA agreement, which are fundamentally flawed. International investors will be privileged without having any responsibility. Granting huge corporations exclusive rights to sue Member States and trample on democracy will lead to the same outcry we saw over CETA and TTIP. We will continue to make the case for a fairer approach to global trade that puts the needs of people and the planet first.
"We welcome the immediate publication of the text of the negotiation mandate. It was one of our longstanding demands and shows that pressure from civil society can lead to success."
Yannick Jadot, Greens/EFA trade spokesperson, adds:
"The Member States and the Commission continue to ignore the legitimate resistance of European citizens to the transfer of their legal and democratic sovereignty to multinationals. Even if they claim to have cleaned up the ISDS mechanism through the MIC, the truth is it doesn’t change the deeply shocking and discriminatory nature of the system. It gives multinational corporations the right to attack our environmental, health and social rights through a private judicial system. The Member States and Commission are ignoring the ramifications of the recent ruling of the European Court of Justice, which cast doubt on the legality of investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms, and have failed to provide any proof that public courts are inadequate. This will do little to convince people that the EU is on the side of citizens."
