Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Cecilia Malmström welcomed the “strong support” expressed by European trade ministers during the informal meeting in Riga on Wednesday 25 March for her initial ideas for the reform of the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism that is proving so controversial in free-trade talks (TTIP) with the United States.
“Of course the ministers were not able to fully endorse all the details but I felt a very strong support for these reforms and everybody expressed full support for the direction we are going in”, said Trade Commissioner Malmström after the meeting. “These proposals are to be discussed with the ministers and members of the European Parliament. We hope that we can put forward a proposal later that spring that would then be the ISDS version from the EU side that would go in TTIP and in all future negotiations”, she added.
“The overall reactions of the ministers to the proposals of the Commission has been positive”, agreed Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, who chaired the meeting.
On Wednesday, Malmström set out for ministers her initial ideas, which she had already unveiled at the European parliament last week (see EUROPE 11278), on each of the four priority areas defined by the public consultation conducted in spring 2014 - protection of the right of states to regulate, oversight and operation of arbitration tribunals so as to avoid conflicts of interest, the appeals mechanism and the relationship between ISDS tribunals and national judicial systems. Her proposals use the updated ISDS clause in the free-trade agreement with Canada (CETA) as a “baseline”.
“We have started to make proposals to reform this mechanism to make sure that there can be protection for investment but that the conditions are very limited, very clear, transparent and that there is no way we will put into question state rights to regulate to protect the citizens. Also discussing possible reforms when it comes to an appeal mechanism, creating a sort of permanent court with pre-designated judges who would lead these arbitrations on and going to a much more transparent and legitimate way of dealing with it”, the commissioner said on Wednesday.
Malmström will continue the discussion with the Council and the European Parliament before drafting a proposal by the latter part of spring, with a view to agreement of a common EU position on this chapter which is at a standstill in TTIP negotiations. The issue will be included on the agenda of the next formal meeting of European trade ministers, in Brussels on 7 May. (Emmanuel Hagry)