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BackOn Wednesday, the European Commission invited to a briefing at the Management Center Europe, during which both TTIP chief negotiators gave short statements on the progress of the negotiations for a period lasting about 90 minutes; afterwards stakeholders attending the briefing had the opportunity to ask questions.
According to Garcia Bercero and Mullaney, the current round would be one of three and it was the aim to finalize the agreement before the end of the year. However, there was still a lot of work to do. The general negotiation topics this week were in respect of standards, services and investment protection; next week's agenda would include public procurement. The negotiations this week were characterized by positive discussion; however, the speakers frequently failed to provide the audience with precise answers.
Even though Mullaney affirmed that the USA and the EU would be able to look back on a long tradition of labour and environmental protection and would share their high standards, it was once again not explained in detail what this would mean in concrete terms. The reason given for this shortcoming was that the discussion had only started on Monday after all.
The controversial issue of investment protection was also discussed. The new model “ICS” (Investment Court System) was once again heavily promoted - Garcia Bercero emphasized once more how important investment protection would be for the USA and her investors respectively. However, attention should also be paid to the civilian population. However, if this were the case, one would have to ask the question why ISDS had not been long consigned to the history books. The fact is that the main points of criticism and deficiencies of ISDS are also part of ICS - hence, critics also refer to it as “Zombie ISDS”.
Three principles would be pursued in respect of public procurement: no compromises with regard to protection measures, transparency and taking the interests of all participants into consideration. The questions as to how exactly this has been established and when the population would be able to examine the papers, were not answered.
Malmström said on Monday in Vienna that the “EU’s text proposals” of TTIP were available online. However, the average person will not find any of these “EU’s text proposals” of the current round of negotiations on the internet. Hence, civil society must continue to rely on what is affirmed in briefings, press conferences and speeches: among other, that no standards will be lowered. However, what this means in concrete terms has to be interpreted; after all US standards differ from those applied by us.
The three-day meeting of NGOs, civil society and employee proved to be far more tangible. One of the central issues among other was a concept with equally disastrous effects than ISDS - the regulatory cooperation (regulatory authorities shall examine whether new legislative proposals represent a barrier for trade and investments; should this be the case it is even possible to reject the proposal) - and CETA, the agreement with Canada, the finalisation of which is imminent.
Further Information:
Regulatory cooperation (CEO, Lobby Control): Dangerous Regulatory Duet
Published texts by the European Commission on TTIP
AK Opinion: Regulatory cooperation
AK Vienna: The big bluff: ICS instead of ISDS (available only in German)
The latest from EU trade policy
AK Position Paper: Trade for all - Towards a more responsible trade and investment policy
AK Position Paper: EU Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP and CETA