All being negotiated away in secret. Even MEP's are only allowed to look at the documents in a high security room and not take any digital devices in there.
This is the EU at its best. Not telling anything, not allowing any debate, concluding it all in secret. Federal elite scum.
The Art of Not Listening
In the face of growing pubic opposition, the European Commission last summer embarked on what can only be described as a half-hearted, half-baked attempt at damage control. It promised to offer a little more transparency around the talks, now in their ninth round, as well as run a public consultation on the highly controversial issue of Investor State Dispute Settlements (ISDS). As I reported last June in Global Corporatocracy is Just a Pen Stroke Away from Completion, ISDS would allow businesses to bypass national court systems and sue governments in private arbitration panels.
Nearly 150,000 people responded to the survey – the highest number of responses ever for an EU consultation – with the overwhelming majority (more than 97%) rejecting the inclusion of ISDS in TTIP.
It was, unfortunately, the wrong answer – as the word “no” so often tends to be in Brussels these days. With the European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström reminding participants that the exercise had been a consultation, not a “referendum” (the most dangerous word you can utter in eurocratic circles), the negotiations have plodded on regardless. The Commission has announced that it will not drop the ISDS provisions from the negotiations but will instead continue with its pre-consultation agenda of “reforming” the system – that is, tinkering around the edges while leaving the core perfectly intact.
As the Commission digs in its heels, playing deaf to the concerns of non-corporate interests, public opposition and resistance continue to grow. TTIP opponents now include MEPs, elected representatives and governments (in particular in Germany, France and Austria), academics, public interest groups, trade unions and even some of the Commission’s own advisors.
As for European businesses, they stand deeply divided on the issue. TTIP has an obvious appeal for the world’s biggest corporations, especially those with seats around the negotiating table. SMEs, however, are far less represented in the talks and are this far less convinced by the agreement’s supposed benefits, despite the Commission’s every effort to paint TTIP as SME-friendly.
Growing Resistance
In countries with the highest concentration of small and family-owned businesses, such as Italy and France, people are “absolutely petrified,” says John Hilary, the director of War on Want and one of the most outspoken critics of TTIP. Meanwhile the German Mittelstand (the country’s mostly family-run SME sector), which represents 99% of firms in the country, is adamantly opposed to the plans. In a recent survey 94% of business owners felt they had not received sufficient information, while another 50% felt their interests were being endangered.
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