28 May 2015

European Parliament: TTIP - more US market access, reform investment protection, retain EU standards

Tools for resolving disputes between investors and states should be reformed and improved, they add.

The recommendations to the Commission negotiators on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), approved in committee by 28 votes to 13 with no abstentions, still need to be endorsed by Parliament as a whole.

Ambitious but balanced deal needed

EU GDP is “heavily dependent on trade and export”, so a “well-designed” deal with the US could help boost the industry contribution to EU GDP by 15- 20% by 2020, as EU firms, especially small, medium and micro enterprises, would benefit from a market of 850 million consumers, says the text.

But at the same time, contradictory study findings make the TTIP’s real benefits for the EU economy hard to assess, note MEPs. They therefore stress that the talks must be transparent, in order to deliver an “ambitious” but “balanced” deal, with shared benefits across EU member states, leading to an “effective, pro-competitive economic environment” and precluding non-tariff trade barriers. High levels of protection for EU consumers their data, health and safety must be guaranteed, and social, fiscal and environmental dumping must be prevented, they add.

Investment protection reform

MEPs say the TTIP must end the “unequal treatment of European investors in the US”, by establishing a reformed and fair system for investors to “seek and achieve redress of grievances”.

This new system should be based on the recent “concept paper” on a reformed investor protection system, as presented by Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström to the EP Trade committee on 6 May, and also on ongoing talks among EU trade ministers. It should include a “permanent solution” with “publicly appointed, independent judges”, “public hearings” and an “appellate mechanism”, while respecting the jurisdiction of courts of the EU and its member states. In the medium term, a public investment court could be used to settle investor disputes, MEPs add.

They also warn that the right to regulate in the public interest needs to be protected and frivolous claims prevented.

Full press release

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