Ahead of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee recommendation vote on Tuesday 24 January granting the Parliament's consent for the provisional implementation of the EU/Canada (CETA) free trade agreement, the Progressive Caucus parliamentary caucus has voted against the CETA
In a press release published on Thursday 19 January, one of the leaders from the platform, Emmanuel Maurel (S&D, France), said, “After the Employment and Social Affairs and Environment, Health Policy and Food Safety Committees’ opinion votes, the European Parliament is divided on this crucial agreement for Europe and Europeans”.
Mr Maurel explained, “CETA does not provide any solution to the EU's most urgent challenges: global warming, rising inequalities, democratic crisis. In fact, it does quite the opposite. By transferring more power to transnational companies at the expense of citizens and public policy choices; by liberalising instead of regulating; by sacrificing some agricultural sectors”.
Anne-Marie Mineur (GUE/NGL, Germany) exclaimed, “CETA is an agreement that was designed to serve the interests of multinationals. It helps neither citizens — both in their capacity as labourers and of consumers —, nor animals, nor the environment. What is more, it undermines our democracy and our legal security”. She also deplored how, “The nonchalance with which this agreement is being rushed through the procedures paints a dim picture of the care and conscientiousness the parliament takes in performing its duties as democratic representation and supervision”.
Yannick Jadot, MEP (Greens/EFA, France) concluded that, “With CETA the EU continues to transfer power to multinationals instead of giving it to citizens. We have to urgently rethink our approach to international trade agreements: the real test of a deal should be whether it improve workers’ rights, protects the environment, and enables the transition to a more sustainable and equal economy”.
The Progressive Caucus platform was set up in September 2016 (see EUROPE 11616). It consists of MEPs from three of the left-wing political groups on the political stage of Parliament - S&D, GUE/NGL and the Greens/EFA. It seeks to alert European citizens about the dangers of the CETA and the EU/US free-trade agreement (TTIP). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)