In his State of the Union speech on Wednesday 13 September, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced a package strengthening the EU’s trade agenda, including proposals to open free-trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand and to screen foreign investment in strategic EU sectors.
“Europe is open for business. But there must be reciprocity. We have to get what we give”, Juncker stated from the outset, vaunting the benefits of the EU’s commercial openness to the rest of the world, making the point that every additional €1 billion in exports supports 14,000 extra jobs in Europe. “Trade is about exporting our standards, be they social or environmental standards, data protection or food safety requirements”, he argued.
Following on from the free-trade agreement with Canada (CETA) and the one partly concluded with Japan, Juncker confirmed that he wants political agreement to be reached by “the end of the year” securing a free-trade agreement with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and an updated free-trade deal with Mexico. He also proposed opening free-trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand, with the aim of finalising all these agreements before the end of his term of office.
Juncker also promised to ensure increased transparency in these negotiations: MEPs and members of national and regional parliaments must be kept fully informed, he said, announcing that “the Commission will publish in full all draft negotiating mandates we propose to the Council”.
“Citizens have the right to know what the Commission is proposing. Gone are the days of no transparency. Gone are the days of rumours, of incessantly questioning the Commission’s motives”, he stressed, urging the Council to follow the Commission’s example when it adopts definitive negotiating mandates.
Lastly, rejecting accusations of Commission naivety in international trade, Juncker announced that he had, on Wednesday, proposed a new Community framework for screening investment by third countries in key EU sectors.
“If a foreign, state-owned, company wants to purchase a European harbour, part of our energy infrastructure or a defence technology firm, this should only happen in transparency, with scrutiny and debate. It is a political responsibility to know what is going on in our own backyard so that we can protect our collective security if needed”, he stated.
In Parliament, the forces of the Left raised an outcry on CETA. “Yes to transparency on trade treaties but, first and foremost, we must defend citizens’ interests. Socialists want to go further than CETA with regard to the interests of citizens and consumers”, said S&D Group leader Gianni Pittella (Italy).
“We have to take energetic action against climate change caused by transport and fossil fuels, and free-trade treaties, like CETA, run counter to the Paris Agreement options”, regretted the deputy leader of the GUE/NGL Group, Patrick Le Hyaric (France).
“We will undertake a complete overhaul of our trade policy, which will now make access to our market conditional on compliance with social, environmental and health standards which we will have freely chosen. We will also propose freezing the provision application of CETA and review the negotiating mandates of all the other agreements that are under discussion”, warned joint leader of the Greens/EFA Group Philippe Lamberts (Belgium). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)