Brussels, 21/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Faced with civil society's strong distrust and hostility with regard to the draft transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP), European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström repeated on Monday 21 April that she expected increased mobilisation from the EU member states.
“The member states should do more because it's not my project, it's not my TTIP”, Malmström said in an interview with French news agency AFP on Monday, stating that the negotiation was being conducted by the Commission on the basis of a mandate agreed upon unanimously by the 28 European capitals. “The member states, the governments, the ministers and the national parliaments must contribute”, she insisted.
At the call of an international grouping of associations, NGOs, unions and parties that was relayed in 45 countries, over 750 actions, gatherings and demonstrations were conducted worldwide last weekend - especially in Germany, where opposition to TTIP is the strongest.
Malmström says that she considers it difficult to convince opponents of TTIP within the anti-globalisation wave or within the wave of anti-American sentiment after the Snowden affair. On the other hand, she believes that it is especially necessary to “address those who are a little hesitant, who have fears and questions”.
On the thorny issue of investment protection and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), Malmström reaffirms her desire “to reform a system created at a time when there was more attention on businesses than on the right to regulate them”. Malmström says that she wants “to establish a new modern system”¸ which protects businesses from nationalisation or expropriation, “but in a transparent way”. “Will there be an ISDS in TTIP in the end? We'll see!” she nevertheless concluded, aware that the European Parliament is very sensitive about this issue.
As regards bringing standards closer together between the two sides of the Atlantic (for which public opinion fears a reduction in standards), there “can be a strategic effect”, Malmström argues because the EU and the US have “the best experts in the world”, who will therefore be able “to define the standards of the 21st Century” at global level.
As regards the timetable, Malmström says that she is not expecting a breakthrough in the negotiations, “either now” at the ongoing round in New York (see EUROPE 11298) “or in July” at the next round scheduled in Brussels. “The discussions are still very technical, before entering a more political phase after the summer”, she says, hoping to achieve a rough draft of the agreement by the end of 2015.
Finland wants ISDS. The ISDS is an important part of the agreement because it “will ensure that investors are treated equally”, says Finland's trade minister, Lenita Toivakka, in an interview on news portal ViEUws. Excluding the ISDS is unlikely, in Toivakka's opinion, because the negotiators are required to “respect the negotiation mandate which provides for such a mechanism” to protect investors. Toivakka nevertheless recognises the need to calm the public's fears on TTIP and the ISDS. (Emmanuel Hagry)