Niveau juridique : Union européenne
Texte disponible en Anglais et néerlandais.
Question posée le 26-08-2015
In a message sent via the secretariat of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade on 27 July 2015, Commissioner Malmström announced that no more reports on the TTIP negotiations would be sent to the EU Member States. At the same time, on her blog, she advocates greater transparency of the TTIP negotiations(1).
1. How will the Commission act on what the Commissioner describes as one of her first decisions as a Commissioner, namely that she would further increase the transparency of the TTIP negotiations?
From now on, parliamentarians can inspect the documents only under supervision in a secure reading room in Brussels. This is happening at a time when the call for greater transparency is becoming ever more insistent.
2. How can this be reconciled with democratic control and with the Commissioner’s statements about greater transparency and sharing information with the national authorities of the Member States, Members of the European Parliament and national parliamentarians?
3. When will the Commission publish the results of the negotiations?
(1) ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/malmstrom/blog/transparency-ttip_en
REPONSE donnée le 9-11-2015 par Mme Malmström on behalf of the Commission
1. Since the start of the mandate, Commissioner Malmström had made unprecedented efforts(1) to make the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) the most transparent trade and investment negotiations ever conducted by the EU. On one hand, the Commission extended access to TTIP related documents to all Members of the European Parliament, and not only to Members of the International Trade (INTA) Committee. On the other hand the Commission also enhanced transparency towards the public, by publishing a number of explanatory documents, position papers and proposals, including the EU legal texts shared with US.
The Commission has never said that Member States (or the European Parliament for that matter) would no longer receive reports on the TTIP negotiations. Commissioner Malmström has reiterated her commitment to transparency by emphasising that the only changes in the policy will be more openness(2) and has announced her decision to publish detailed and extensive reports of future TTIP rounds in all EU official languages.
2. The Commission agrees with the Honourable Member that sharing information with the national authorities of the MSs and with MEPs is crucial to ensure the democratic scrutiny of the negotiations and an informed debate based on facts. Consequently, the Commission gives EU government’s full access to all EU negotiating texts as well as regularly discussing the negotiations with Member States and European Parliament, notably by meeting the Parliament’s TTIP Monitoring Group before and after each negotiating round(3).
3. The final text of the agreement will be published once TTIP negotiations are concluded.
(1) ec.europa.eu/news/2014/docs/c_2014_9052_en.pdf
(2) ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/malmstrom/blog/transparency-ttip_en
(3) Commission is consulting Member States via Trade Policy Committee of the Council and European Parliament via International Trade Committee of the European Parliament.
Lien : www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2015-012159&language=EN