TTIP Consultation – call for submissions and model answers

Have you heard about TTIP yet?

TTIP, or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, is a Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the United States of America. This vast deal, while having potential benefits, could have serious and long-term consequences for the well-being of European citizens as well as people across the globe (see below for more information). We at QCEA believe that TTIP threatens not only hard-won labour and environmental rights, but it also endangers the democratic nature of European governments.

After considerable pressure from civil society, in March 2014 the European Commission launched a consultation on one particularly contentious aspect of TTIP: the investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS). ISDS mechanisms allow investors to sue governments for millions or billions of dollars/pounds/Euro through international courts, for legislation which impinges on their profits. QCEA’s concern is that these courts will have a serious negative effect on democracy, by preventing legislators from implementing important laws and regulations, and through a catastrophic impact on public finances. These courts are also completely confidential, and therefore outside of public scrutiny.

This consultation gives EU citizens like you the opportunity to let the European Commission know what you think. It is as an opportunity for European citizens to send a clear and unequivocal message to the European Commission: ‘no’ to unaccountability, ‘no’ to an unequal justice, ‘no’ to ISDS.

Click here to see QCEA’s model answers in Open Office format and here to see them as a pdf. Please feel free to use our answers as a basis for your own response to the consultation (which can be found here). The questionnaire and the background information referenced can be found on that website.

More information on TTIP?

See QCEA blog posts on economic justice (click to follow the link)

Download our background paper (click here)