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Trade Agreements

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 April 2014

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Questions (124)

Mick Wallace

Question:

124. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views on whether the EU-US negotiations on a transatlantic trade and investment partnership are sufficiently transparent; his views that the text of the EU's negotiating mandate and the initial position papers tabled by the EU should be published, in addition to other relevant documents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17416/14]

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Written answers

Under Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Commission has the responsibility to negotiate trade agreements, in consultation with the Member States. The EU’s Trade Policy Committee is specially set up for that purpose and meets at least once a week to discuss the detail of all the EU’s trade negotiations, including the TTIP. This, together with technical and other meetings provides important communications structures underpinning transparency between the Commission and the Member States on all matters that come up for discussion in the negotiations. There is currently an issue around access by member states to the actual documents produced by the US side which I understand will be resolved shortly.

Wider stakeholder transparency is supported by the Commission in a number of ways, including stakeholder briefing sessions during and following each round of negotiations, and a dedicated TTIP website, which is very comprehensive and includes various documents and reports of the ongoing negotiations. It is worth noting that the European Ombudsman, Ms Emily O’Reilly, recently commended the level transparency and openness to stakeholder consultation of these negotiations. The website can be accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip.

The European Commission has also set up a special advisory group, which includes representatives from environmental, health, consumer, workers, business and NGO interests, to provide EU negotiators with high quality advice in the areas covered by the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. This forms part of the Commission’s commitment to outreach and transparency, to explain what is involved and to hear the widest possible views from civil society.

I would also draw your attention to the recently launched public consultation by the European Commission on the investment provisions of a future Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. All stakeholders have the opportunity to respond to this consultation, so that specific interests and concerns on investor protection and settlement of related disputes are well understood by the European Commission, and can be used to better define the EU’s approach to investor protection in the TTIP negotiations. The public consultation can be accessed at: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/consultations. As regards the question of releasing the text of the EU’s negotiating mandate, the formal process falls under the EU Council’s rules for declassifying documents. This was discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council (Trade) on 18 October last, but it is not a straightforward issue, and it is not at all clear how declassification would best serve the overall negotiating interests of the European Union. But I remain open on this. The EU Commission has produced a useful factsheet on transparency in the TTIP negotiations, and this can be found at: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2014/march/tradoc_152276.pdf.

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