The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

ECOS-V/063
Adopted

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

 Adoption: 12/02/2015
 Theme: Enterprise and Industry
Commission: Commission for Economic Policy (ECON-V)
calls on the Commission to apply a horizontal exemption for public services from all obligations entailed by the principle of market access and national treatment; points out that the negotiations on the transatlantic free trade agreement cover areas that fall within the remit of all government and administrative levels, including local and regional authorities, and calls on the European Commission, in the light of this substantial regional and local dimension of the agreement, to include the Committee, as the EU's assembly of local and regional representatives, in the advisory group to ensure the timely involvement and participation of the local and regional level in the negotiations; underlines that TTIP amounts to a mixed agreement that is subject to approval by the European Parliament and ratification by all 28 EU Member States, which, depending on the law of each Member State, may require the approval of not just the national parliaments, but also that of the governments, parliaments and chambers representing the regional level.
Many of the requests in the opinion have been addressed. For instance, the CoR now has privileged access of information on the negotiation. There has also been a general increase of transparency in the negotiations and the Commission, together with the US trade authority, have declared that the TTIP in no way will affect the way Member States choose to provide social services for its citizens. Furthermore, the much criticized ISDS mechanism iu under revision and may be replaced by a more transparent system aimed at resolving conflict between inverstors and the states in which they invest. One of the demands of the CoR was also that the TTIP agreement should be considered a mixed agreement, which would mean that it would need to be ratified by the Member States' national parliament and, in some cases, when the constitution so require, by regional parliaments. This question, however, cans resolved once the final agreement is concluded as it is only then the ECJ can decide if it does or does not amount to a mixed agreement.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS  assumes that the TTIP could be an opportunity to boost growth and employment in the EU, in that it may provide reciprocal market access for trade in goods, services, investment and public procurement, and cut red tape and remove non-tariff barriers to trade (NTBs);  notes, however, that an agreement of such global scope entails risks as well as opportunities, and therefore insists that democratic participation and the powers of local and regional authorities must be safeguarded;  considers the high European standards of protection that exist for EU citizens to be an achievement worth defending at all costs, and insists that the EU Member States' existing legal standards in such areas as the protection of life, product safety, health, social, environmental, climate, foodstuff and animal protection, and consumer and data protection rights and intellectual property, as well as workers' rights, must on no account be lowered, but rather efforts should be made to raise these standards and to put public service provision on a solid footing; supports the view that the right to regulate these key areas should remain with the relevant European and national institutions alone;  points out that the negotiations on the transatlantic free trade agreement cover areas that fall within the remit of all government and administrative levels, including local and regional authorities, and calls on the European Commission, in the light of this substantial regional and local dimension of the agreement, to include the Committee, as the EU's assembly of local and regional representatives, in the EU Commission's TTIP advisory group to ensure the timely involvement and participation of the local and regional level in the negotiations;  underlines that TTIP amounts to a mixed agreement that is subject to approval by the European Parliament and ratification by all 28 EU Member States, which, depending on the law of each Member State, may require the approval of not just the national parliaments, but also that of the governments, parliaments and chambers representing the regional level.
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