Brussels, 09/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - Despite the adoption, on Wednesday 8 July, of the European Parliament's recommendations for reframing the negotiations for a transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP), the most mistrusting MEPs (like the third of the socialists who want any arbitration system for investor-state disputes to be excluded from TTIP, the Greens, and the far left) made it known in comments after the vote that they would not stop fighting.
On the side of the 'dissident' socialists (with regard to the issue of investor-state dispute arbitration), who voted against the resolution, Marie Arena from Belgium regretted a resolution “that remains half-way, because it doesn't give any guarantee to the citizens and its sends a confused message to the Commission”. “Our markers remain very clear: 'no' to the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, because the European and American legal systems are perfectly well equipped to ensure the protection of investments; 'no' to the regulatory cooperation mechanism, which would make multinationals and industrial lobbyists into quasi co-legislators, and which will lead to the lowering of standards in the short, medium and long term; and 'no' to abandoning the precautionary principle, data protection and cultural diversity. But these markers were not respected”, Arena insisted. “The ISDS mechanism (the major sticking point) was largely contested by the MEPs but the strength of the multinational lobbyists finally won. The citizen now has a real role to play in focusing on the list of voters today and contacting MEPs who decided in favour of TTIP”, she added.
On behalf of the ecologists, Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA, France) deplored the European Parliament being brought to heel by its president, Martin Schulz. “The grand coalition of centre-left, centre and centre-right groups has had major difficulties in building a new majority for even an ambiguous expression of support for the TTIP. This is because for the last two years the TTIP has come under heavy criticism from citizens, consumers, trade unions, cities and regions, and SMEs. [The] adoption is thanks only to the last-minute switch in position of some centre-left MEPs on the question of private arbitration courts, under pressure from President Schulz allied with the centre-right. By postponing last month's TTIP debate and vote, Martin Schulz won time to impose a new compromise concerning private arbitration courts. Over the last few months, centre-left MEPs had shown their willingness to respect citizens' democratic wishes but this conflicted with Schulz's strategy of compromise with the centre and centre-right groups who are openly in favour of the TTIP's deregulation agenda”, said Jadot. “Two years ago, no one could have predicted the level of mistrust MEPs are now showing towards the TTIP. Public opinion and citizen activism has played a big part here and has altered the balance of power within the Parliament. While negotiations have not even reached the halfway marker yet, this hollow victory of the pro-TTIP camp means the story does not end here and Greens will continue to oppose the TTIP”, he said.
On the far left, the GUE/NGL shadow-rapporteur for trade issues, Helmut Scholz from Germany, hailed the “impressive resistance” to TTIP and the ISDS at the European Parliament and in civil society. “According to the European Commission, TTIP will lead to the 'relocation' of at least one million jobs in the EU. According to the US government, TTIP is an instrument with which to confront China and the Kremlin. And, according to the social democrats, the ISDS shall now be replaced with ISDS. The EPP and S&D group agreed to tell people that they had heard their concerns, but they are telling the Commission to go ahead anyway”, Scholz deplored. “But the fight is not over. This was a resolution on the conduct of the negotiations and not on the result (…) Together with our partners in civil society, in trade unions, in consumer protection organisations, in farmers' and environmental protection organisations, we will continue to point out these contradictions with each negotiation round to come. What they call non-tariff barriers to trade, we call achievements of democracy. We will stand firm against the regulatory cooperation agenda. We will not be appeased by the proposals to replace the current bad ISDS mechanisms with a 'better' ISDS. The very principle of ISDS must be given up as it aims at giving corporations more rights than citizens”, Scholz concluded. (Emmanuel Hagry)