The local and regional dimension of the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)

ECON-VI/003
Adopted

The local and regional dimension of the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)

 Adoption: 04/12/2015
 Theme: Enterprise and Industry
Commission: Commission for Economic Policy (ECON-VI)
To underline that the CoR should be included as appropriate in the internal EU decision-making process as regards trade negotiations. This is important as LRAs are the players that bear most responsibility for public services, and they must be consulted to properly evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of liberalisation. To highlight to the European Commission the particular interests of the local and regional level in relation to the TiSA negotiations. This role could be significantly strengthened if the opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the free trade agreement between the EU and Singapore were to confirm that the TiSA has the characteristics of a mixed trade agreement, which in a number of Member States must be ratified by the assemblies representing the regional level. To underlines that CoR's opposition to any encroachment on the sovereignty of national governments and LRAs, especially in the spheres of education, culture, theatre, libraries, museums and finance, as well as labour protection, environmental protection, data protection, publicly funded social and healthcare services, licensing of healthcare facilities and laboratories, waste management facilities and power stations, consumer standards, standards relating to social cohesion, schools and publicly-financed education services, and other, privately-financed education services, as well as public procurement provisions.
The CoR rapporteur has met with the EP rapporteur (Mrs Reding) and some of the shadow rapporteurs and there is an ongoing exchange of documents between the EP and the CoR. The EP resolution raises a number of issues relevant to LRAs and that are in line with the CoR position. For instance, the resolution asks the European Commission to ensure that European, national and local authorities retain the full right to introduce, adopt, maintain or repeal any measures with regard to the commissioning, organisation, funding and provision of public services; to apply this exclusion irrespective of how the public services are provided and funded; to acknowledge that social security systems are excluded from the negotiations. It also asks the European Commission to fully preserve European, national and local authorities’ right to regulate. • The full impact of the CoR opinion will have to be measured step by step as more and more of the content of the negotiations are revealed.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS - draws the attention of the European Commission to the particular interests of the local and regional level in relation to the TiSA negotiations. This role could be significantly strengthened if the opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the free trade agreement between the EU and Singapore were to confirm that the TiSA has the characteristics of a mixed trade agreement, which in a number of Member States must be ratified by the assemblies representing the regional level; - opposes any encroachment on the sovereignty of national governments and LRAs, especially in the spheres of education, culture, theatre, libraries, museums and finance, as well as labour protection, environmental protection, data protection, publicly funded social and healthcare services, licensing of healthcare facilities and laboratories, waste management facilities and power stations, consumer standards, standards relating to social cohesion, schools and publicly-financed education services, and other, privately-financed education services, as well as public procurement provisions; - is opposed to the inclusion of clauses that oblige authorities to fix the degree of liberalisation achieved at the time of the agreement (standstill clause), that prohibit a liberalised service from being returned to the public sector (ratchet clause), and that make any new service subject to automatic and complete liberalisation (safeguard clause); - is concerned that the Sustainability Impact Assessment provided for in the EU's negotiating directives has not yet been finalised; calls for the impact of TiSA on territorial cohesion to be considered in this assessment (territorial impact assessment).
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