ECB building €1.3bn protest Blockupy 10k protesters attracts at least 10k police!! Official opening will been off limits for the press, only representatives of accredited press agencies will get permits to cover event. Will journalists join the street protest?
Europe does not want to be transformed to Atlantic capitalism of the US, Canada and UK. Stop the secrecy on the negotiations with the multinationals on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Capitalism will be favored and consumer protection will be buried, the labour rights will be washed out to the ocean bassin separating the two continents. Bashing Putin is part of the game, Europe including Germany should not look eastward but become a greater part of US corporatism.
TTIP must not allow companies to sue EU countries for environmental laws | The Guardian |
A major free trade deal should not allow US companies to sue European nations when they pass environmental laws that hurt their profits, MPs said on Tuesday.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is being negotiated between the EU and US, may contain a mechanism called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). This would allow investors and companies to sue countries when they introduce laws that restrict their business practices.
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'Blockupy' activists start protest action in Frankfurt {Deutsche Welle)A report by the UK’s parliamentary Environmental Audit Dommittee (EAC) said: “EU states must retain their `right to regulate’, but a TTIP treaty text that enshrines such a safeguard will be meaningless if the prospect of ISDS [investor state dispute settlement] litigation produces a chilling effect on future regulation-setting.”
Joan Walley, the committee’s chair, said that once the trade treaty is signed it must include a guarantee that states could protect the environment with impunity.
“Any dispute settlement provision must unambiguously deny US companies any opportunity to sue us when we look to introduce necessary environmental or public health safeguards,” said Walley, the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent North.
Opponents use the hashtag #stoptafta
For getting to grips with the arguments over potential threats to sovereignty, read Owen Jones in the Guardian on the threat TTIP poses to democracy.
The Guardian’s Brussels correspondent Ian Traynor tweets at @traynorbrussels and has written on European divisions over TTIP.
Policy experts at the thinktank European Council on Foreign Relations have put together a proposed compromise on the deal.
TTIP: Shaping the Future of Investor−State Dispute Settlement?
(Chathan House) – The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US, two of the world’s largest economies, is intended to remove trade barriers, create wealth and promote investment. On 13 January, the European Commission published the results of its public consultation on investment protection and investor−state dispute settlement (ISDS) in TTIP. Of the 150,000 responses, 97 per cent were negative. Critics have stated that the ISDS proposals would allow corporates to undermine regulation by governments in fields such as environmental protection. A further consultation is promised.
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