Brussels, 20/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - At their summit on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 March, Europe's leaders said they hope a free-trade deal (TTIP) with the US can be reached at the end of the year. They agreed to communicate more on the benefits of such a deal and to hold dialogue with civil society.
The European Summit conclusions document says the EU and the United States will need to pull out the stops to conclude the negotiations on an ambitious, global and mutually beneficial agreement by the end of the year, and the member states and European Commission will have to boost their efforts to communicate about the TTIP's benefits and boost dialogue with civil society.
The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said they had had a good exchange of views and had underscored that the EU and the United States must do all they can to reach agreement by the end of 2015. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said all governments shared the objective of concluding at the end of the year and some controversial elements will need to be examined during the negotiations with the Americans.
In the face of deep civil society suspicions about the TTIP, Tusk and Juncker wanted to ensure the EU's leaders were firmly behind the transatlantic deal this week. Highly controversial issues such as settling disputes between investors and states (ISDS), approximation of rules on either side of the Atlantic and liberalisation of services (and therefore risks for public services) have generated concerns in some countries and in civil society.
The TTIP negotiations kicked off again earlier this year after a gap of several months in the autumn due to the changing EP and Commission and the US mid-term elections. The eighth negotiating meeting was held in Brussels in early February and two rounds of talks are planned - one in the United States in April and one in July in Brussels, before the summer break. (Emmanuel Hagry)