Brussels, 01/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 1 June, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström called on the European capitals to show the necessary leadership to win European citizens over to the advantages of a free trade agreement between the EU and US (the transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement - TTIP).
“Some of them [EU member states] should engage much more to convince [citizens] why they think this is good for their country and for Europe, so I would ask for more leadership”, Malmström told the conference of bodies specialised in European affairs (COSAC) in Riga on Monday.
The TTIP negotiations are still on track after nine rounds of technical level talks. The latest round (in New York at the end of April) enabled further progress ahead of the political review in the autumn (see EUROPE 11302), and a tenth round is planned for July in Brussels.
On Monday, Malmström also spoke about the desire for these negotiations to be concluded before the end of US President Barack Obama's mandate, at the end of 2016.
Merkel defends TTIP. In an interview in German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on 30 May, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about the desire for the TTIP negotiations to be concluded before Obama's departure, in January 2017. If there is no agreement by this date, Merkel fears “a long interruption” to the discussions.
“It is important for transatlantic free trade to follow the pace of the Pacific region”, she said, referring to the trans-Pacific negotiations between the US and countries of Asia and Oceana.
“In particular, for our export-based economy, the US is the main market outside the EU - even bigger than China. So it is in the interest of our jobs and our prosperity for us to encourage trade with the US and for us not to abandon competitors from other regions of the world”, Merkel also stated.
By contrast, while she acknowledges the opposition to TTIP roused by concerns about the risk of lowering social and environmental standards, Merkel accused the consumer associations and ecologists of wanting to strengthen these standards as part of the TTIP negotiations rather than trying to defend them. “This is the wrong approach”, she said. According to a recent survey, 43% of the German population thinks that TTIP would be bad for their economy. (Emmanuel Hagry)