37 Amendments of Edouard MARTIN related to 2014/2228(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Citation (new)
Citation (new)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the Commission is currently negotiating on behalf of the European Union a deep, comprehensive and high standards trade and investment partnership agreement with the United States (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – TTIP) that aims to foster and facilitate commercial exchange of goods and services and enhance investment through inter alia the removal of trade barriers; whereas a significant number of European citizens have voiced legitimate concerns that this agreement would threaten fundamental EU regulations, in particular in the fields of labour rights, environmental protection and food and safety standards
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas in order to contribute to the well-being of all European citizens the objectives of the TTIP is to increase trade and investment between the European Union and the United States;should be to regulate globalisation and support sustainable trade and investment flows in a balanced way across Europe, sustainable economic growth, decent jobs creation and promotion of the European Social Model
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the negotiations have attracted unprecedented public interest, given the potential economic, social and political impact of the TTIP; and the secretive manner in which the negotiations have been conducted
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the Committee on Petitions has received a number of petitions raising concerns about the EU-US trade agreement (TTIP); whereas the petitioners’ main concerns are related to risks regarding the quality of food imports, the transfer of data from the EU to the US, in particular information allegedly collected by the US regarding natural and legal persons (the right of EU citizens to ‘digital self-determination’), transparency, economic impact, and protection of investorhe lack of transparency of the negotiations, the potential negative economic impact of TTIP, in particular in terms of employment and wages, and the transfer of public authorities’ right to regulate to corporations via the Investor- State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS);
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point i a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point i a (new)
i a) to ensure that the social and environmental impacts of a potential agreement are thoroughly assessed by means of an open debate;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas the European Commission received a total of nearly 150,000 responses to its public consultation on investment protection and Investor-to- State Dispute Settlement in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement, 97% of which rejected the inclusion of ISDS in TTIP; whereas, unusually, many submissions came from individual respondents, which highlights the scale of public mobilisation over TTIP; whereas some respondents, such as trade unions or large civil society organisations represent a large number of individual members that is vastly in excess of the total number of responses received by the Commission;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point i b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point i b (new)
i b) to gauge the risk of the defining of common social and environmental protection standards with the United States weakening collective European preferences and exacerbating economic and social divergences between EU Member States;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas the European Ombudsman’s investigation of July 2014 regarding the transparency of the TTIP scrutinised the withholding of key documents and alleged granting of privileged access to certain stakeholders; whereas the European Ombudsman received more than 6000 emails in reply to its TTIP public consultation;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Underlines the importance of developing the trade relationship and bilateralbalanced trade and investment relations between the European Union and the United States of America in order to help growth and employment and generate new economic opportunitieswith adequate safeguards to provide the highest labour, social, health and environmental standards on a global level in order to generate new economic opportunities and regulate globalisation, so that social and environmental dumping is excluded;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Points out that while opting for American LNG may be a means of diversifying our gas supplies, it will not help us to make the energy transition and it will entail substantial investment on this side of the Atlantic (particularly in terminals); foresees that the price of the LNG in Europe, given the transformation and transportation costs, will bear no relation to that charged in the US; considers therefore that, in a context of competition for investment, this option must be the subject of democratic discussion;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the objective of reducing unnecessary regulatory incompatibilities between the EU and the USA in relation to goods and serviceslifting technical barriers to trade between the EU and the USA which are not justified by different approaches to protection and risk management, such as duplication of procedures, inconsistent product requirements and double testing;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point iv
Paragraph 1 – point iv
(iv) to ensure that civil society can make a meaningful contribution to implementing relevant TTIP provisionsthe implementation of and compliance with labour provisions must be subject to a monitoring process, which involves the social partners and civil society;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. NoteDemands that regulatory compatibility is to be without prejudice to thedoes not in any way affect public authorities’ right to regulate in accordance with the level of health, safety, consumer, labour and environmental protection and cultural diversity that each side considers appropriate;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission to work oncontribute to transatlantic harmonisationconvergence of standards and regulations that define the principles of public support for different energy sources, so as to contain the risk of any distortion of competition without undermining or diluting the European regulatory framework or the EU climate targets;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point v
Paragraph 1 – point v
(v) to take immediate steps to safeguard the right of EU governments to legislate, organise, set quality and safety standardsensure an adequate carve-out of sensitive services such as public services, social services and public utilities (including water, health, social security systems and education) allowing national and local authorities enough room for, manage and regulatoeuvre to legislate in the public servicinterest;
Amendment 74 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the fact that the Commission has made real efforts to make the TTIP negotiating process more transparent, especially in the light of the publication of the European directives for the negotiation on the TTIP (1103/13 CL 1); regrets that this essential document was only disclosed on 9 October 2014 while the negotiations started in June 2013; believes that this delay by the European Commission and the Council in disclosing such essential documents has to date hindered the development of an informed public debate on TTIP and has contributed to reinforcing negative perceptions of the European Union and its institutions in important parts of the general public;
Amendment 76 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Welcomes the decision of the European Ombudsman concerning its inquiry in relation to the European Commission’s efforts to make TTIP negotiations transparent and accessible to the public; calls on the Commission to rapidly implement the Ombudsman’s recommendations related to public access to consolidated negotiating texts, greater proactive disclosure of TTIP documents and increased transparency as regards meetings that Commission officials hold on TTIP with business organisations, lobby groups or NGOs.
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Suggests that further steps are needed in order to continue the Commission’s efforts to increase transparency and to promote more comprehensive participation and involvement of the various stakeholders in the negotiating process and in particular of civil society and consumers organisations, given the potential impact TTIP will have on the lives of European citizens;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point v a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point v a (new)
(v a) to ensure that ratchet and standstill clauses do not apply to public and social services. The possibility of a re- nationalisation and re-municipalisation of services must be safeguarded.
Amendment 85 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Deeply regrets that the access given to Members of the European Parliament to TTIP negotiating texts is extremely limited, as only a very partial selection of documents is made available to them, in a fashion that is not conducive to proper parliamentary scrutiny of the negotiations; highlights that documents available in the EP secured reading room do not contain any consolidated material or any text tabled by the US;
Amendment 88 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – subparagraph h a (new)
Paragraph 1 – subparagraph h a (new)
ha. call on the EU institutions and on the ECB to set up with their US counterparts a committee to monitor the euro/dollar exchange rate, given that the fluctuations in that rate have a much greater impact on many industrial and services sectors than the regulatory factors referred to above, and given that the repercussions go well beyond the transatlantic market, since the dollar zone is not restricted to the United States, but also incorporates many countries in Latin America and Asia, including China, which has maintained a steady dollar parity for many years;
Amendment 88 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Points to the huge differentials between the USA and the EU not only in energy prices but also in per capita CO2 emissions; calls on the Commission, therefore, to provide energy-intensive seand in terms of access to raw materials but also in per capita CO2 emissions; considers that the TTIP is either a ‘new generation’ trade agreement concerned with non-tariff factors, in the EU, including the chemicals industry, with appropriate measures maintaining current tariff rates over the longest possible period after the entry into force of the TTIP; which case the Commission should ensure that it reflects the best possible deal in terms of social and environmental regulation, so that fair competition will result, or else it is a ‘traditional’ agreement concerned with reducing customs duties, in which case the Commission ought to ensure the retention of trade adjustment mechanisms (including tariff-based mechanisms) that reflect the social and environmental disparities between our respective systems;
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – subparagraph h b (new)
Paragraph 1 – subparagraph h b (new)
hb. call on the institutions, including the Council, to make, in parallel with the negotiations on TTIP, arrangements for the proper external representation of the eurozone, in order to consolidate the benefits the euro offers;
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Regrets that the petition filed by over one and a half million Europeans was not qualified by the European Commission as a ‘European Citizens’ Initiative’, due to limitations contained in the ECI legislative framework; regrets that in effect these limitations entail that any ECI on trade issues could only be admissible after the entry into force of a trade agreement, and that ECIs aimed at influencing ongoing trade negotiations are not permitted in the current framework;
Amendment 103 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights the sensitivity of certain areas of negotiation, such as the agricultural sector, where perceptions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), cloning and consumer health are divergent between the European Union and the United States;, therefore calls for these areas not be subjected to regulatory cooperation and any additional rules on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards and Technical Barriers to Trade; in areas in which trade in sensitive sectors already occurs, such as GMOs, calls for the establishment of clear labelling rules that would reinforce consumer choice
Amendment 105 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Highlights the high levels of public scrutiny given to the agreement via petitions, which raised strong concerns about the transparency of the negotiations and the adverse negative effects on workers’ rights and public services including health care, social services, education, water and sanitation
Amendment 107 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point viii
Paragraph 1 – point viii
Amendment 108 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Points out that this agreement must not call into question the collective preference of any country with regard to the prohibition of fracking in accordance with application of the precautionary principle;
Amendment 111 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Emphasises that consumer protection and compliance with higher European quality standards for foods and products should be at the centre of the negotiations on the TTIP., the highest standards of environmental protection and strictest control of industrial emissions in the EU and the US and the proper safeguards to protect citizens’ data, should be at the centre of the negotiations on the TTIP; negotiators should not consider any commitments on data protection within the framework of TTIP pending the conclusion of on-going legislative work in this field in the EU and US
Amendment 121 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point viii a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point viii a (new)
(viii a) to oppose the inclusion of ISDS in TTIP. In the agreement with the United States of America that have fully functional legal systems and where no risk of political interference in the judiciary or denial of justice has been identified, ISDS is not necessary.
Amendment 147 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Requests that the Commission facilitate more active participation of EU firms in US public procurement as this can contribute to stimulating private-sector innovation and to the emergence of new, high-growth innovative companies and sectors; stresses that this possibility must not consequently undermine the capacity of Europeans to maintain their public services;
Amendment 155 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point x c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point x c (new)
(x c) to ensure that governments have the opportunity to adopt socially and ecologically responsible procurement policies. Procurement provisions should not prevent governments from addressing societal and environmental needs. In addition, public procurement policies should be in line with ILO Convention 94 regarding labour clauses in public contracts.
Amendment 157 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Commission, in the context of closer transatlantic relations, to use its trade defence instruments (anti- dumping and countervailing duties) as effectively as possible;
Amendment 174 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Reminds the Commission, while welcoming the potential benefits of regulatory alignment and mutual recognition, including the establishment of common principles in standards and technical specifications in the area of ICT, about the importance of maintaining high levels of safety and, security and personal data protection;
Amendment 196 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls on the Commission and on the ECB to set up with their US counterparts a committee to monitor the euro/dollar exchange rate, given that the fluctuations in that rate have a much greater impact on many industrial and services sectors than the regulatory factors referred to above, and that the repercussions go well beyond the transatlantic market in that the dollar zone is not restricted to the United States, but also incorporates many countries in Latin America and Asia, including China, which has maintained a steady dollar parity for many years;
Amendment 213 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Calls on the Commission and the Council to make arrangements, in parallel with the TTIP negotiations, for the proper external representation of the eurozone, in order to consolidate the benefits of the euro for European industry;