De Gucht assures that TTIP will probably be a mixed agreement
Agence Europe | 23 May 2014
EU-USA : De Gucht assures that TTIP will probably be a mixed agreement
Brussels, 23/05/2014 (Agence Europe) — European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht has said that the national parliaments of the 28 EU member states will “very likely” need to ratify the future EU-US free trade agreement that is currently being negotiated.
“It is very likely that due to the breadth of the negotiations that TTIP will be a ’mixed agreement’. A mixed agreement clearly means that the national parliaments and institutional bodies like the Bundesrat will co-decide on TTIP”, De Gucht told the European affairs committee of the Germany Bundesrat, which represents Germany’s regional governments.
In European trade policy jargon, a mixed agreement refers to agreements so vast that they encroach upon national law — which therefore necessitates the approval both of the EU institutions and the national parliaments. This means that a single national parliament from the 28 EU member states could use its veto against the final agreement. The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA), rejected by the European Parliament in 2012, was a mixed agreement.
The TTIP negotiations arouse numerous concerns among public opinion as regards food safety, consumer protection and national sovereignty.
