Brussels, 10/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - As part of its continued efforts towards the increased transparency of EU/United States free-trade negotiations (TTIP), the European Commission on Tuesday 10 February published the proposed text on regulatory cooperation which has been tabled by the EU.
This proposed text, which has been officially submitted to the American party in the eighth round of negotiations in Brussels last week (2-6 February) (see EUROPE 11248), contains three sections: - section I details the objectives and principles, definitions and scope of the chapter; - section II contains proposals on regulatory best practice (including transparency, impact assessments and involvement of the stakeholders) and ways of making these operational; - section III contains measures to reinforce and make more effective current transatlantic cooperation on the various types of legislation/regulation, known as 'regulatory acts', which have a significant impact on bilateral trade or investment flows.
The provisions of section III are added to by a proposed institutional mechanism involving the EU and the US at a high administrative level to increase regulatory cooperation: a regulatory cooperation body (RCB) will be responsible for monitoring areas of cooperation in place and considering new ones. The RCB will ensure that all stakeholders are involved. Its principal role will be to ensure transparency, accountability and the prioritisation of work. The RCB will provide support and advise decision-makers, but will not have powers to adopt legal acts or interfere with any domestic EU or US regulatory procedures.
The Commission explained that this proposed EU text on regulatory cooperation concerns regulations at central level - certain EU legislations and regulations and laws produced by the federal agencies of the United States and Congress. The European Executive has promised that it will provide more detailed proposals regarding the relevant acts of the United States and the EU member states. (Emmanuel Hagry)