Brussels, 27/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Fourteen representatives from the worlds of the economy, the unions and consumers will advise the European Commission in its free-trade negotiations.
On 27 January, the Commission launched a special advisory group made up of experts representing a broad range of European interests, from the environment, health and workers' interests to various business sectors (agri-food industry, manufacturing industry and services), tasked with providing the European negotiators with “quality advice” in the talks underway towards a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the United States.
This group, which will be chaired by the European negotiator-in-chief Ignacio Garcia Bercero, has 14 members, selected on the basis of their broad skills in their respective fields and their enormous experience of EU trade policy or international regulatory policy. They come from the associations ETUC, Industri-All (unions), BEUC, Transatlantic consumer dialogue (consumers), European Public Health Alliance (health), Transport & Environnement (environment), COPA-COGECA (agriculture), FoodDrinkEurope (agri-food), the association of car manufacturers ACEA and the chemical product association VCI (manufacturing industry), the association BusinessEurope (business), the European Services Forum (ESF) and the Standard Chartered Bank (services). These experts are taking part on a voluntary basis and will not be paid. Bercero will share with them detailed information on the progress made in the negotiations and, for the first time, the EU's negotiating documents, where necessary, the Commission explains.
The group, which will operate in line with the Commission's standard rules on expert groups, and which agreed on its working conditions on 21 January, will hold its first full working meeting on 25 February, shortly before the fourth round of TTIP talks, scheduled for March. (EH/transl.fl)