Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the United States must bring better access for European companies to US markets, including public procurement. It must also ensure greater labour mobility and promote smarter regulation and a very high level of consumer protection. These are the main demands made by the European Parliament internal market committee (IMCO) in its opinion, adopted on Tuesday 24 March, with a view to Parliament recommendations on the TTIP.
The TTIP agreement is “a unique chance for Europe to strengthen our leadership role in the world and, at the same time, bring growth and jobs to the single market. If done right, TTIP will not only maintain our high European standards but help make them global standards as well”, commented rapporteur Dita Charanzova (ALDE, Czech Republic).
In its opinion, the IMCO committee calls for European service providers to have full access to liberalised services in the US. It warns, however, that the TTIP should not endanger the high quality of EU public services, such as publicly financed health, education, water and social services.
The committee encourages EU negotiators to be ambitious on public procurement and to ensure reciprocal and transparent access to US public procurement markets for EU economic operators, in particular SMEs. Furthermore, the MEPs make clear that the TTIP must not affect the right of EU public authorities to decide on the form of service provision (public or private) and on the procurement criteria, such as MEAT (most economically advantageous tender).
The IMCO committee supports great labour mobility across the Atlantic, which could be pursued by mutual recognition of professional qualifications, visa facilitation and lifting of work permit requirements for EU professionals.
The MEPs also call for better regulation and regulatory cooperation through the TTIP. Their opinion emphasises that the TTIP should not affect the right of public authorities to regulate but there needs to be a reduction in regulatory differences, which act as a non-tariff barrier to transatlantic trade, by encouraging the sharing of best practice, exchange of information, mutual recognition of requirements and cooperation between regulators. The IMCO committee also suggests setting up an effective cooperation mechanism aimed at creating common EU-US standards where possible, making it possible for European companies to consult one single US information point on standards across all sectors. It also lays great stress on maintaining a high level of consumer protection.
The committee argues for the inclusion of a specific chapter on SMEs in the TTIP, as small businesses are disproportionately affected by non-tariff barriers to trade. To reduce the cost of access to the US market for SMEs, the opinion says the access procedure should be simpler, more modern and digital and it calls for the removal of the double certification requirement.
With the international trade committee as the lead, 15 Parliamentary committees will be involved in preparing the Parliament's recommendations on the TTIP talks. Voting on the report by Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany) is scheduled to take place in the international trade committee on 7 May and two weeks later in plenary session. (Emmanuel Hagry)