INTA Report "Recommendations to the European Commission on TTIP"
European Parliament 01-06-2015
INTA Report "Recommendations to the European Commission on TTIP"
INTA Committee has recently voted on a recommendations for the European Commission regarding the TTIP negotiations.
The European Parliament has expressed its view on what it expects from the TTIP negotiations before they were launched in June 2013 and before the Council adopted its TTIP negotiating mandate.
After more than 9 negotiating rounds and TTIP half way through, as Commissioner Malmström recently said, INTA decided that it is time to take stock and assess, where the negotiations stand.
The new report on TTIP negotiations is intended to assess the main results of the negotiations after almost 1.5 years of discussions and to express the Parliament’s views on the main issues of a potential TTIP agreement, following-up to Parliament’s resolutions adopted in October 2012 and May 2013.
In order to ensure a coherent approach and the possibility for opinion-giving Committees to submit formal opinions the report is based on Rule 108(4), and 13 committees have decided to draft opinions.
This will be the first occasion of the new EP to take an official position on the TTIP negotiations, whereby the aim is to provide guidance to the EU negotiators, what they need to take into account to get support of the EP for the final agreement, once it is concluded, and to send out a clear message to the US counterparts, what the representatives of the European citizens are expecting from a possible future trade deal.
Vote in Plenary will take place in June in Strasbourg.
– INTA Draft Report
– Amendments and Opinions of 13 Committees
– EP Resolution on TTIP of 23 May 2013
– EU’s negotiating proposals
European Parliament 01-06-2015
Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement Mechanism (ISDS)
In 2014, the Commission undertook a consultation on the question of investor state dispute settlement, i.e. a separate system of redress whereby investors under certain circumstances could launch cases against states in arbitration tribunals.
A separate report released by the Commission on 13 January 2015 analysing nearly 150,000 responses to an on-line consultation shows that most respondents hold sceptical views about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and inclusion of Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement Mechanism (ISDS) into it.
Commissioner Malmström discussed with INTA Members the way forward to resolve in the best manner disputes by foreign investors in the context of TTIP, known as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).
Some MEPs are in favour of reforming the current international arbitration mechanism by introducing a series of improvements such as greater transparency, appeals and a code of conduct for arbitrators.
Other MEPs have concerns that the awards granted by such tribunals can have a deterrent effect on regulators and are therefore against such a mechanism and some are see a permanent investment court staffed by permanent judges as the solution.
– Concept Paper "Investment in TTIP and beyond"
– More on ISDS
