Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's international trade committee is calling on the European Council to start negotiations on trade and investment with Washington, but nevertheless calls for the exclusion of audiovisual services from the European Commission's mandate.
In a resolution drawn up by its chair, Vital Moreira (S&D, Portugal), and adopted on Thursday 25 April (by 23 to 5 five, with 1abstention), the Parliament's international trade committee favoured the opening of free-trade negotiations with the United States as soon as possible, after the Council has given its green light, in mid-June. The Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers has two months to tie up an amended negotiating mandate which the member states must obtain beforehand from the Commission.
In order to stimulate growth and jobs in the EU, the transatlantic agreement must create new possibilities for European businesses, guaranteeing total access to public markets, for example, and removing restrictions on European service providers - for example restrictions on foreign ownership of American airlines - the MEPs state. They also recommend the inclusion of financial services so as to promote supervisory convergence between regulation systems on this on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition, the MEPs call for the USA to lift restrictions on imports of European beef, as a “confidence-building measure”.
At the same time, the international trade committee adopted an amendment from the Socialists (by 14 votes to 11, with 5 abstentions) to exclude audiovisual and cultural services from the mandate - especially online services. The text also calls for the protection of clearly defined areas of intellectual property rights, and the protection of geographical indications and a high level of personal data protection. Furthermore, differences of opinion between the EU and the USA on GMOs, cloning and consumer health should not, in the MEPs' opinion, threaten the European precautionary principle. Lastly, the MEPs advocate extensive consultation with stakeholders.
The resolution will be debated and put to the vote in the Parliament's plenary in May.
Socialists argue for the cultural exception. Moreira immediately hailed his colleagues' support for starting the transatlantic negotiations as soon as possible in order to capitalise on the current policy, but he said that the agreement should not jeopardise the fundamental values of the EU. Given its new powers, the Parliament will have the last word when it comes to approving a possible agreement. While MEPs both to the Left and to the Right, in both the EPP Group and the S&D Group, welcome the fact that the negotiations are soon to start for a transatlantic agreement that could inject €120 billion into the European economy and help create thousands of jobs, only the Socialists stress the need for excluding the audiovisual sector from the negotiations. Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany) also calls for the safeguard of sensitive areas like data protection, and for the precautionary principle to be defended on food, health and environmental issues. GMOs and cloning must also be excluded from the agreement in Lange's view. (EH/transl.fl)