News
BackTrade Committee omits clear cancellation of ISDS from TTIP Resolution – plenary session as the last chance for Social Democrats
After a last minute amendment, which means that the originally planned rejection of ISDS was removed from the text, the draft resolution on TTIP by Bernd Lange (SPD) was adopted this week with a slim majority. The current version of the recommendation - following the vote in the Committee - refers to investment protection, which is compatible with democracy. Even though some of the Social Democrat Committee members have agreed to this passage, according to informed circles they are planning to table another amendment before the vote in plenary on June 10, which shall remove ISDS from the agreement for good. As a majority of the 751 MEPs have to agree, the Social Democrats are now hoping to find allies in the other more ISDS-friendly groups (among other EPP, ALDE and ECR). According to their own statements, by agreeing to the reformed arbitral jurisdiction the Social Democrats had taken the bull by the horns as it was now easier to find a majority against ISDS in the large plenary than in the small Trade Committee, where talks were deadlocked.
Support the search for majority in the plenum against ISDS!
The tactics to shift the final decision on the end of ISDS to the plenary makes your participation in the “NO 2 ISDS” campaign of AK and FOEE even more important. Only if we succeed to persuade enough ISDS sceptical MEPs, it will be possible to put an end to the undemocratic arbitration courts. Follow the example of those 32,000 people who have signed “NO 2 ISDS” already in the first week and help us to achieve the necessary majority in the European Parliament.
Background information:
Under the name “NO 2 ISDS”, we were already successful last year to alert the Commission concerning the great resentment in the population against private arbitration courts. From ca. 150,000 comments against ISDS to the Commission in total, almost 25,000 were the result of the communication by AK and FOEE. The objective of the second part of the campaign, which was launched last week, is to persuade MEPs vote according to their voters' wishes and to clearly reject ISDS in the European Parliament.
Join us in asking MEPs to say NO to ISDS!
With the help of the newly designed platform www.no2isds.eu you too can send out a signal and ask MEPs with only a few clicks to reject any special rights for foreign investors. The (trilingual) e-mail message to Parliamentarians initiated by you consists of a short explanation and the promise to ask your representatives of the people to make:
“I reject special rights for foreign investors and in particular any investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in TTIP. I will vote against any resolution that fails to firmly reject special rights for foreign investors and an investor-state dispute settlement.”
Clear overview, which MEPs take a stand against ISDS
If an MEP decides that he/she wants to make this promise to you, he/she is able to inform you via a hyperlink. A list under www.no2isds.eu tells you that the representative of the people rejects ISDS; consequently, he/she does no longer receive any email requests from NO 2 ISDS. A counter also provides you with an overview as to how many Members of Parliament have already come out against the unfair rights to sue for foreign investors. The campaign has the support of trade unions and civil society organisations, among them UNI Europa (European trade union for services and communication), EPSU (European Federation of Public Service Unions) and attac.
Recommendations of the European Parliament are of the greatest importance
Even though it is not legally binding, the text to be adopted has great political significance: Parliament has to agree to the Free Trade Agreement as soon as it is available. However, as it is not integrated in the negotiations led by the Commission, it has prior to the “all or nothing” vote on TTIP no direct opportunities to influence on drafting the contents. Hence, in this situation, a resolution represents an important signal: Parliament is able to clearly show its preferences. If these are not taken into consideration by the negotiators, the latter have to expect that Parliament will reject TTIP. In view of the year-long efforts made to achieve such an agreement, it would be unwise of the Commission to ignore the - legally not yet (!) binding - vote of the European Parliament.
ISDS out of control: danger to democracy and rule of law
ISDS allows foreign investors to bypass national courts and to sue states directly before private ad-hoc arbitration courts. This enables them to legally proceed against laws, which previously had been adopted by sovereign states - using the argument that the value of their investment was in danger. That way, the possibilities of democracies to sufficiently protect important concerns of society, for example labour rights or health protection are curtailed. Apart from that, disputes between states and investors will be regulated by private business lawyers away from the public.
From a democratic point of view, ISDS is fundamentally inacceptable as it grants foreign investors greater proprietary rights than the rest of society plus providing them with the opportunity to bypass national courts. This puts our rule of law into question. Private arbitration courts exclusively benefit well paid solicitors and arbitrators as well as foreign investors, who are able to ward off any unpleasant regulations that way.
It is therefore also in your interest to say NO to ISDS and to ask our 751 Members of Parliament to vote against the dangerous plans of the Commission.