Activities of Goffredo Maria BETTINI related to 2014/2228(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) (debate) IT
Amendments (21)
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas an ambitious and balanced agreement with the US may support the reindustrialisation of Europe and help achieve the 2020 target for an increase of the EU’'s GDP generated by industry from 15 % to 20 %; whereas it has the potential to create opportunities especially for SMEs, micro enterprises, according to the definition of Recommendation COM 2003/361/CE, clusters and enterprises networks which suffer more from non- tariff barriers (NTBs) than larger companies; whereas an agreement between the two biggest economic blocs in the world has the potential to create standards, norms and rules which will be adopted at a global level, which would serve to the advantage of third countries as well;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas many economic impact studies on TTIP should be taken with caution as they are built on computable general equilibrium economic models with very optimistic predictions about the capacity of the EU and the US to reduce regulatory barriers to trade; whereas the TTIP alone will not resolve economic problems in the EU and no false hopes and expectations should be raised in that respectthe real impact of TTIP on both EU and US economies is difficult to assess and hard to predict while negotiations are still ongoing; whereas there are contradictory economic impact studies on TTIP and they should be taken with caution as regards the capacity of the EU and the US to reduce regulatory barriers, unnecessary or unjustified, to trade and to support economic growth and job creation; whereas the TTIP alone will not resolve economic problems in the EU and no false hopes and expectations should be raised in that respect; whereas hopes and expectations on TTIP should be commensurate to the level of ambition that will be reached sector by sector in the negotiation;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the secret character oflimited level of transparency of the negotiations as they have been conducted in the past has been a serious mistake and it has led to deficiencies in terms of democratic control of the negotiation process;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas the current phase of fast change in the global geopolitical scenario requires a resolute attitude by the EU, which has to explore the various political and economic options in order to reinforce its global economic role;
Amendment 243 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a – point i
Paragraph 1 – point a – point i
(i) to ensure that TTIP negotiations lead to a deep, comprehensive, ambitious, balanced and high-standard trade and investment agreement that would promote sustainable growth with shared benefits across EU Member States, support the creation of high-quality jobs for European workers, directly benefit European consumers by ensuring a high level of existing and future labour, social and environmental standards, fight tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax havens, increase international competitiveness, and open up new opportunities for EU companies, in particular SMEsmicro and SMEs, and contribute to attracting more foreign investments in the EU; the content of the agreement is more important than the speed of the negotiations, which should in any case take into account the developments in the global international arena;
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a – point ii
Paragraph 1 – point a – point ii
(ii) to emphasise that while the TTIP negotiations consist of negotiations on three main areas – ambitiously improving reciprocal market access (for goods, services, investment and public procurement at all levels of government), reducing NTBs and enhancing the compatibility of regulatory regimes, and developing common rules to address shared global trade challenges and opportunities – all these areas are equally important to be included in a comprehensive package; TTIP should be ambitious and binding on all levels of government on both sides of the Atlantic, the agreement should lead to lasting, fair, genuine market openness on a reciprocal basis and trade facilitation on the ground, and should pay particular attention to structural means of achieving greater transatlantic cooperation while upholding regulatory standards and preventing social and environmental dumping, including through a structured system of pre and post impact assessment and evaluation procedures, including a precise gender assessment;
Amendment 286 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a – point iv
Paragraph 1 – point a – point iv
(iv) to ensure, especially given the recent positive developments in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), that an agreement with the US serves as a stepping-stone for broader trade negotiations and is not seen as an alternative to the WTO process; bilateral trade agreements are always the second-best option and must not prevent efforts in order to reach significant improvements on the multilateral level;
Amendment 307 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point i
Paragraph 1 – point b – point i
(i) to ensure that the market access offers in the different areas are equally ambitious and reflect both parties’' expectations, as market access for industrial goods, raw materials, energy, agricultural products, services and public procurement is equally important in all cases and a balance is needed between the different proposals for these areas;
Amendment 397 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vi
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vi
(vi) to ensure an adequate carve-out of sexplicit exclusion of public services from the scope of application of TTIP as referred to in article 14 TFEU, through the introduction of an extensitive services such as public services and public utiliticarve-out in the core text of the agreement of all public services, current and future, covering all non-economic Services of General Interest as well as Services of General Economic Interest (including water, healthbut not limited to water, health, social services, social security systems and education) allowing, to ensure that national and local authorities enough room for manoeuvre to legislate in retain the full ability to introduce, adopt, maintain or repeal any measures with regards to the commissioning, organisation, funding and provision of public services as provided in article 106 TFEU and Protocol 26 TFEU; this exclusion should apply whether the services in question are organised as a monopoly, operating under exclusive rights or otherwise, and whether public interest; aly and privately funded and/or organised; notes the joint declaration reflecting negotiators’' clear commitment to exclude these sectors from the negotiations would be very helpful in this regard; ;
Amendment 453 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point viii a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point b – point viii a (new)
(viiia) to aim at the mutual recognition of professional qualifications in order to enable EU and US professionals to practice on either side of the Atlantic and to facilitate mobility of investors, professionals, high-skilled workers and technicians between the EU and the US in sectors covered by TTIP;
Amendment 472 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point x
Paragraph 1 – point b – point x
(x) to keep in mind that, as specified in the mandate, the agreement shouldall not riskcontain any provisions that prejudicinge the Union’'s cultural and linguistic diversity, including in; to therefore ensure that the audiovisual and cultural services sector, and thats well as existing and future provisions and policies in support of the cultural sector, in particular in the digital world, are kept out of the scope of the negotiations in accordance with the principle of technological neutrality, are kept out of the scope of the negotiations; to exclude subsidies or government support to audiovisual, educational and cultural services and its industries, including "digital products", from any commitments taken in chapters related to telecommunication, investment or e- commerce;
Amendment 489 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xi
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xi
(xi) to ensurake an ambitious approach to the tchat account is taken of the discrepancies in thepter on public procurement, with a view to remedying, in line with the principle of reciprocity, the major disparity currently existing in the degree of openness of the two public procurement markets on both sides of the Atlantic andand to significantly opening up the US market, still ruled under the Buy American Act of 1933 on the basis of the international undertakings entered into under the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and of the removal of the restrictions currently applying at federal, state and administrative level alike in the United States; emphasises, in particular, the need to guarantee that undertakings entered into by the US federal authorities will be honoured at all political and administrative levels; to ensure that account is taken of the huge interest on the part of European companies in obtaining, notably SMEs, in obtaining non- discriminatory access to public contracts in the US both at federal and state level, for example for construction services, traffic infrastructure and goods and services while respecting sustainability criteria for procurement on both sides, inter alia; to ensure the compliance of the chapter with the new EU public procurement and concession package entering into force in 2016directives, notably as regards the definition of public-cooperation, exclusions, SMEs access and the use of the MEAT criteria;
Amendment 533 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xiv
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xiv
(xiv) to ensure that the negotiations on rules of origin aim at reconciling the EU and US approaches; given the conclusion of the negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between EU and Canada and the potential upgrade of the EU-Mexico free trade agreement, the possibility and scope of cumulation will need to be considered; views the negotiations as an opportunity to move towards high common standards for compulsory origin marking of products in order to fully guarantee consumers and create a level playing field for economic operators with regard to access to the two markets.
Amendment 558 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c – point i
Paragraph 1 – point c – point i
(i) to ensure that the regulatory cooperation chapter promotes a broad, far reaching and structured dialogue with US and an effective, pro- competitive economic environment through the facilitation of trade and investment while developing and securing high levels of protection of health and safety, consumer, labour and environmental legislation and of the cultural diversity that exists within the EU; to aim at the definition of high-quality standards and law for consumers, established on the basis of the highest standards in each sector, bearing in mind that the results achieved will become de facto international standards; negotiators on both sides need, thus, to identify and to be very clear about which regulatory measures and standards are fundamental and cannot be compromised, which ones can be the subject of a common approach, which are the areas where mutual recognition based on a common high standard and a strong system of market surveillance is desirable and which are those where simply an improved exchange of information is possible, based on the experience of one and a half years of ongoing talks; stresses that SMEs are disproportionately affected by NTBs;
Amendment 593 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c – point iii
Paragraph 1 – point c – point iii
(iii) with regard to the horizontal regulatory cooperation chapter, to give priority to fostering bilateral cooperation between regulatory bodies through enhanced information exchange and to promote the adoption, strengthening and timely implementation of international instruments, on the basis of successful international experiences such as, for instance, ISO standards or under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’'s (UNECE) World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29); to establish that the prior impact assessment for the regulatory act, as defined in the horizontal provisions on regulatory cooperation, should also measure and prioritise the impact on consumers and, the environment next toand gender relations over its impact on trade and investment; to handle the possibility of promoting regulatory compatibility with great care and only without compromising legitimate regulatory and policy objectives;
Amendment 610 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c – point v
Paragraph 1 – point c – point v
(v) to fully respect the established regulatory systems on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the European Parliament’'s role within the EU’'s decision-making process and its democratic scrutiny over EU regulatory processes when creating the framework for future cooperation while at the same time being vigilant about a balanced involvement of stakeholders within the consultations included in the development of a regulatory proposal; in order to avoid that neither Party exercise any veto power before any regulatory proposal has been officially tabled by the other Party; to specify the role, the composition and the legal quality of the Regulatory Cooperation Council, taking into consideration that any direct and compulsory application of its recommendations would imply a breach of the law-making procedures laid down in the Treaties; to also oversee that it fully preserve the capacity of national, regional and local authorities to legislate their own policies, in particular social and environmental policies;
Amendment 723 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xi
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xi
(xi) to ensure that TTIP includes a specific chapter on SME’s and aims at creating new opportunities in the US for European SMEs, micro enterprises, clusters and enterprises networks, for instance by eliminating double certification requirements, by establishing a web-based information system about the different regulations, by introducing ‘fast- track’ procedures at the border or by eliminating specific tariff peaks that continue to exist; it should establish mechanisms for both sides to work together to facilitate SMEs’ participation in transatlantic trade, for instance through a common SME ’one-stop shop’; it should provide a specific part dedicated to the peculiar needs of micro enterprises, clusters and enterprises networks;
Amendment 745 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xiii
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xiii
(xiii) to ensure that investment protection provisions are limited to post- establishment provisions and focus on non- discrimination and fair and equitable treatment; standards of protection and definitions of investor and investment should be drawn up in a precise manner; stresses that substantive provisions shall, inter alia, protect the right to regulate in the public interest, clarify the meaning of indirect expropriation and prevent unfounded or frivolous claims; free transfer of capital should be in line with the EU treaty provisions and should include a prudential carve-out in the case of financial crises;
Amendment 763 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xiv
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xiv
(xiv) to ensure that foreign investors are treated in a non-discriminatory fashion and have a fair opportunity to seek and achieve redress of grievances, which can be achieved without the inclusion of an ISDS mechanism; such a mechanism is not necessary in TTIP given the EU’'s and the US’' developed legal systems; a state-to- state dispute settlement system and the use of national courts are the most appropriate tools to address investment disputes; should ISDS provisions be included in the TTIP, negotiations must avoid any rushed, methodologically unsound investor-to-state mechanism in TTIP;
Amendment 860 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e – point iv a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e – point iv a (new)
(iva) to fully involve National Parliaments and keep them regularly informed on the negotiations, especially since, given the scope of the ambition for the agreement, it is likely TTIP will be considered a 'mixed- type' agreement and thus require a ratification process in EU Member States including, in some cases, at the regional level;
Amendment 865 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point f
Paragraph 1 – point f
(f) to seek even closer engagement with Parliament, which will continue to closely monitor the negotiating process and to engage on its part with the Commission, the Member States, and the US Congress and Administration, as well as with stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic, and to seek to reduce times and costs for legal scrubbing, translations, approval, ratifications and entry into force in order to ensure an outcome which will benefit in the short term citizens in the EU, the US and beyond;