On Monday 22 June, the European Commission exchanged views with members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) on the Clean Trade and Investment Partnership (CTIP) with South Africa, signed on 20 November last year (see EUROPE 13756/7).
Carlo Pettinato, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade, responsible for trade relations with Africa, welcomed positive feedback from Pretoria on the establishment of this partnership, while refusing to describe it as a ‘mini trade deal’.
Several Members nevertheless asked for clarifications. Dariusz JońskiI (EPP, Polish) asked about the priorities identified by businesses and the progress made in removing regulatory barriers. The conservative right and the far right asked for details on the investments made and how they would be assessed. On this point, the European Commission representative indicated that it was still too early to assess the effects of these investments, which could take several years.
The Greens/EFA and Renew Europe, for their part, recalled the need for the EU to distinguish itself from other investors in South Africa, notably China, which, in their view, acts according to a transactional logic, whereas the EU promotes an approach that does not create long-term dependencies.
Parliament questions its role. Bernd Lange (S&D, German), chair of the INTA committee, asked for details on how this instrument fits in with other existing partnerships, notably the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the memorandum of understanding on critical minerals.
The CTIP continues to give rise to reservations in the European Parliament, not on substance, but on procedure. This new instrument does not require MEPs’ approval, a situation that the German socialist had described as a “non-democratic process” (see EUROPE 13744/19).
In response, the European Commission assured members that the CTIP created neither new structures nor bureaucratic procedures. “The CTIP does not constitute an overall framework for everything. I would describe it as an ‘umbrella’ for the Economic Partnership Agreement, which forms the basis of our trade relations”, Mr Pettinato said. On the question of the democratic process, the senior official recalled that civil society and the European Parliament were consulted regularly. (Original version in French by Juliette Verdes)