Brussels, 06/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 March, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she wanted a free trade agreement with the US (TTIP) to be concluded by the end of 2015.
“The European Council was very clear. The deadlines for concluding the negotiations are the end of 2015”, Merkel told press after a meeting in Brussels with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. In their conclusions of 18 December, the European heads of state and government had called on the EU and US to do their utmost to conclude an “ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial” agreement by the end of 2015. “But the Commission will only be able to keep this deadline if it can count on the support of the member states. Germany guarantees this”, she added. European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström had said at the start of January that only “the skeleton” of an agreement could be ready for the end of the year.
As regards the extremely controversial issue of protecting investments and the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism - which is very much wanted by the US - Merkel said she was confident that a fair solution would be found. “We have always said that a balance was needed. I am sure that this obstacle, like the others, can be lifted”, she said, hailing Malmström's “very transparent” approach on this, which has “enabled more to be known”. “We ask for sufficient clarity because this issue is not a point that will be relegated to the outskirts of the negotiation. It's a political priority point”, Merkel stated (our translation throughout). (Emmanuel Hagry)