Last week the European Parliament adopted the report on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) by a large majority. Although we worked very intensively on the report, we voted against its adoption when the vote in plenary session was held.
Why? Firstly the vote was not about saying “yes” or “no” to the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) itself. In fact the report was...
more
PRESS RELEASE - Strasbourg, 3 February 2016
The European Parliament today adopted a resolution setting out its position with regard to the ongoing negotiations on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). The Greens criticised the resolution, which fails to properly highlight the major concerns with the negotiations. After the vote, Greens/EFA vice-president and trade...
moreWe need human rights with teeth! The European Commission is close to finalizing its free trade agreement with the West African countries. But the commission forgot that she decided to have human rights and sustainable development at the center of her trade policy. There is nothing in this agreement that makes human rights really enforceable. And we know from other trade...
more
Report on Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) Postponed to January
Last week, the TiSA negotiators met again in Geneva. The European Union has been chairing the latest round of talks. Beforehand, the EU's negotiating team announced that it was keen to make serious progress. Its objective was that all participating countries should improve their liberalisation proposals.
... more
1. TTIP negotiations: no real progress
This week saw the 11th round of negotiations on the TTIP transatlantic trade agreement in Miami. The negotiations were expected to speed up after the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) negotiations were finalized, because the focus of the US has been on concluding this agreement with the eleven Pacific Rim countries. But...
more
1. False labeling with investment protection!
The European Commission has come up with a new designation for investor-state arbitration tribunals. Instead of ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement), the talk now is of ICS (Investment Court System). Unfortunately, there has been little change in the content. All that has changed is that the arbitrators will from now on...
more
Press statement 16/09/2015
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström today presented a proposal for reforming the controversial investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS) in the context of trade agreements. The Greens criticised the new 'Investment Court System', which would maintain the fundamental problems of ISDS. Commenting on the proposal, Greens/EFA...
more
Dear Readers,
Here is an update just before the summer break from the meeting of the trade committee of the European Parliament. It will resume work in September.
1. The 10th round of TTIP negotiations
The 10th round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, is currently taking place in Brussels. What exactly is being negotiated is...
more
The European Parliament today, under direct pressure from its President Martin Schulz, adopted its recommendations to the European Commission on the negotiations for the EU-US trade treaty (TTIP). Commenting on this, Greens/EFA vice-president and international investment spokesperson Ska Keller said:
“President Schulz's compromise amendment on private arbitration courts...
more
Press release, 2nd July 2015
With debate still raging in the European Parliament on the proposals for an EU-US trade partnership and private arbitration courts (Investor-state dispute settlement/ISDS), the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has pressured German and Spanish MEPs from the centre-left Socialists & Democrats group to adopt the same...
more
