TTIP: Organizations Pillory the EU Commission
In preparation for the 14th round of TTIP negotiations, more than 65 organizations have sent an open letter to Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament. The signatories include nongovernmental agencies like the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), ClientEarth, and the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL). The letter criticizes the current practices of the EU Commission, which, the authors claim, does not follow the recommendations of the European Parliament when negotiating with representatives of the United States.
With its resolution, the European Parliament encourages the EU Commission not to negotiate certain topics, such as laws on chemicals, pesticides, and cosmetics, given the significant discrepancies that exist between the EU and the United States. The same request applies to planned laws that protect health and the environment.
As part of a compliance check, the signatories of the letter checked to see how well the EU Commission held to the resolution of the EU Parliament. The result? Representatives of the EU clearly include REACH and other laws in negotiations and keep the U.S. representatives in the loop regarding planned laws and other measures so that these representatives can influence the laws.
This situation is disturbing because the EU Commission thereby softens current EU standards (like threshold values for pesticide residue in foodstuffs) to remove commercial barriers.
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