A delay which would equate to an end. It was only to be expected. The American espionage abuse (as it is claimed to be) to the detriment of Europeans, has provided the opportunity to ask for the end of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), or at least to delay their opening (which is due next Monday). An end, or a delay for a period of two weeks, has been called for by France. In practice, this comes to the same thing because the days are numbered - another delay would in fact mean renouncing any chance of success in the time available. This column has already pointed out that it will be necessary anyway to reduce the content and ambitions of the Euro-American project, given the short deadlines that there are (see EUROPE 10874). Those MEPs or national authorities that want the cancellation, blockage or postponement of the negotiations should purely and simply admit to their opposition to the Euro-American partnership on trade and investment. Marc Tarabella MEP has had the honesty to call for the end to all negotiations with the US.
Subjecting the partnership negotiations to clarity on the wiretapping affair (which has been described as espionage) is justified and reasonable - but sabotaging the economic partnership by delaying the negotiation is another matter (in practice confirming distrust in the principle of the project, especially from those who had expressed their opposition, reservations or distrust during the battle on the cultural exception).
For and against. In the European Parliament, some stances are firm and explicit. In the view of Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Rebecca Harms (Greens Group), the European commissioner in charge of the negotiations, Karel De Gucht, must no way sit down at the negotiating table with the US next Monday. In the view of Jean-Marie Cavada (EPP Group), an EU-US agreement on the personal data protection of Europeans must be a pre-condition. Guy Verhofstadt, for the Liberals, has called for a special inquiry. And we could go on with these statements.
The positions which call for the significance and importance of the agreement to be negotiated with the US not to be overlooked are not in short supply, however. Let me recall that Joseph Daul, the French leader of the EPP Group, asserted that we need to work together with the US and that the free-trade agreement will lead to between 1.5% and 2% growth, but he also called for what is not good to be worked upon (see EUROPE 10879). Let me recall, in particular, the clarifications of Catherine Ashton, the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy, who stated (through her spokesperson) that the contested facts are old - with the EU offices in New York and Washington having both relocated since the date of the allegations. She then added: We have a completely new security system (see EUROPE 10878). Furthermore, it was announced that the European Commission would start a complete control of its facilities - in particular, checking their security.
Bizarre figures. Let me add that the indications on the breadth of the espionage have something strange about them. This is about millions of messages being recorded every day - as if it was possible to use them or even just understand what they are talking about. Lay people have the impression of a hyperactivity that it is hard to understand and they wonder whether these IT experts are not simply aiming to justify their work with a pile-up of useless data. Overall it's billions of data that are being spoken about. Good luck to those who have to fish for information in the data.
The European Commission has to decide. It just remains to be said that it is up to the European Commission to make its operational decisions because it is the Commission that has received the negotiating mandate with the US and therefore has to decide whether or not to maintain the date of Monday 8 July for starting work. The Commission has today (Thursday) given its opinion before the European Parliament, which adopted a resolution. The Socialist Group proposed an amendment that was not passed by the majority, which aroused discontent among the Socialists. Their discontent was expressed in very strong positions asserting that it will be a long haul to re-establish trust with the US, that the Commission's decision to open the negotiations with the US is intolerable, and that the Commission should not cash in on the private lives of our fellow citizens in a free trade agreement. See the report on the Parliament's debate in the following pages of this issue of EUROPE.
(FR/transl.fl)