Activities of Louis MICHEL related to 2014/2228(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) (A8-0175/2015 - Bernd Lange) FR
Amendments (32)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph A
Paragraph A
A. Stresses that EU trade and development policies are interlinked and that Article 208 of the Lisbon Treaty establishes the principle of policy coherence for development, requiring that the objectives of development cooperation be taken into account in polThe Committee on Development (a) calls on the Commission to take account of: - Article 208 of the Lisbon Treaty, which sets out the parameters of development cooperation; - the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, signed in Cotonou, on 23 June 2000; - Council Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007 of 20 December 2007 applying the arrangements for products originating in certain states which are part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States provided for in agreements establishing, or leading to the establishment of, Economic Partnership Agreements; - the negotiations that have been in progress since 2002 on the Economic Partnership Agreements with the ACP Group of States, subdivided into six regions: the Caribbean, Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, the Pacific Island States, the Southern African Development Community and West Africa; - Commission Regulation (EU) No 1063/2010 of 18 November 2010 amending Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code, and in particular Articiles that are likely to affect developing countries; 66 to 97 thereof, relating to the generalised system of preferences (GSP); - Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences and the Everything But Arms initiative (EBA), - the WTO rules and the conclusions of the 2013 Bali Conference, which gave new momentum to the multilateral system to relaunch the Doha Round negotiations;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph A a (new)
Paragraph A a (new)
Aa. Stresses that EU trade and development policies are interlinked and that Article 208 of the Lisbon Treaty establishes the principle of policy coherence for development, requiring that the objectives of development cooperation be taken into account in policies that are likely to affect developing countries;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph A a (new)
Paragraph A a (new)
Aa. Stresses that the Doha round of global trade negotiations in the auspices of the WTO was launched as a Development Round in order to enhance the access of the developing countries into the world market and in order to promote the sustainable development of their economies and societies; is deeply worried that the TTIP and other bilateral negotiations and agreements between individual countries or groups of countries may severely undermine the global trade negotiations; urges the Commission to avoid these negative developments and step up efforts to overcome the current Doha Round Stalemate.
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph A b (new)
Paragraph A b (new)
Ab. Urges that the TTIP should contribute to strengthening the acquis of the Cotonou Agreement, take account of the new guidelines to be defined for the post- 2020 framework and allow the parties to the Agreement to pursue their objectives, in particular the signing of the finalised Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), which are intended to establish a secure framework for flows of trade and investment between the EU and the ACP;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph A c (new)
Paragraph A c (new)
Ac. Points out that the EPAs offer the developing countries the conditions needed to experience the benefits of globalisation as soon as possible, that they make a substantial contribution to promoting regional integration in the ACP countries and that they serve both as a catalyst for growth and a mechanism for strengthening good governance and thus contribute to the sustainable development of the developing countries;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph B a (new)
Paragraph B a (new)
Ba. Urges the Commission’s Directorate- General for Trade to establish a permanent dialogue with the Directorate- General for International Cooperation and Development, with a view to analysing the TTIP’s impact on the developing countries;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas citizens from a state which is a contracting party in a free-trade area ought to enjoy ease of access to the entire area;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas the parties to a free-trade agreement have a shared interest in combating corruption, money laundering and fraud; whereas the USA, the EU and its Member States are all parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph C a (new)
Paragraph C a (new)
Ca. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the TTIP does not have the effect of excluding the developing countries, that it does not undermine their ability to take part in all stages of the production, processing and marketing of products and that it will on the other hand enable them to boost their efforts to diversify;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas an ambitious agreement with the US mayshould 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, 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 and should make it possible to avoid a fragmentation of world trade;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph D a (new)
Paragraph D a (new)
Da. Urges the European Union to ensure that the ACP countries do not suffer preference erosion and trade diversion;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph F
Paragraph F
F. Sees, however, the potential of the TTIP to promote the highest global standards of this century on decent work, environmental protection, and food and product safety and encourages the European Union to stand ready to defend the developing countries’ interests.
Amendment 88 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Points out that the free-trade area will include all the Member States of the European Union, and that all EU citizens will therefore have to be treated equally in terms of their right of access to the USA;
Amendment 90 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Considers that a clause on corruption, fraud and money laundering must be included in the agreement.
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas a diverse energy supply is essential for the European Union and TTIP could be an engine for the development of a strategic transatlantic energy partnership.
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas President Juncker has clearly reiterated in his Political Guidelines that – while the EU and the US can go a significant step further in recognising each other’s product standards and working towards transatlantic standards – the EU will not sacrifice its safety, health, social, food, environmental and data protection standards or our cultural diversity, recalling that the safety of the food we eat and the protection of Europeans’ personal data are non- negotiable;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas his declarations have already been extended into the undertaking given by the European Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, and the American commerce representative, Michael Froman, on 20 March in Brussels, for the protection of public services in the commercial agreements negotiated by the EU and the United States;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas the method for settling conflicts between investors and States must without fail be accessible, guarantee impartial treatment of the dispute, and include a possibility of appeal against the decision given in the lower court;
Amendment 210 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I b (new)
Recital I b (new)
Ib. whereas it is necessary to ensure that the investors cannot dispute, whatever the judicial mechanism, decisions of a general nature taken by the Member States relating to public service;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Ja. whereas, also, the salutary efforts of the Commission to persuade the American partner of the justification for increased openness in the negotiations, and the need to continue this proactive approach;
Amendment 293 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a – point iv a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point a – point iv a (new)
(iva) to ensure that the fields coming within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Member States as universal services (for example in the fields of education, health and social security) are excluded from the negotiation mandate;
Amendment 394 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vi
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vi
(vi) to ensure an adequate carve-out of sensitive services such as public services and public utilities (including water, health, social security systems and education) allowing national and local authorities enough room for manoeuvre to legislate in the public interest; as joint declearation reflecting negotiators’ clear commitment to exclude these sectors from the negotiations would be very helpful in this regardly expressed by the negotiators in their joint declaration on the exclusion of public services from the scope of TTIP;
Amendment 429 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vii
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vii
(vii) to combine market access negotiations on financial services with convergence in financial regulation on the highest level, in order to support the introduction of necessary regulation in order to preventinforce financial crises and in order tostability and support ongoing cooperation efforts in other international forums, such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision;
Amendment 456 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point viii a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point b – point viii a (new)
(viiia) to ensure that the trust between the EU and US, which was damaged by mass surveillance scandals, be rapidly and fully restored; to ensure that all transfers of data to the US comply with European law;
Amendment 460 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point ix
Paragraph 1 – point b – point ix
(ix) to ensure that European competition law is properly respected particularly in the digital world; to ensure that, in the margins of the TTIP negotiations, the European Commission makes additional efforts to develop an ambitious European digital policy.
Amendment 471 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point x
Paragraph 1 – point b – point x
(x) to keep in mind that the agreement should not risk prejudicing the Union’s cultural and linguistic diversity, including in the audiovisual, publishing and cultural services sectors, and that 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;
Amendment 488 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xi
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xi
(xi) to ensure that account is taken of the discrepancies in the openness of public procurement markets on both sides of the Atlantic and the huge interest on the part of European companies in obtaining access to public contracts in the US both at federal and state level, for example for construction services, traffic infrastructure and goods and services, civil engineering, airports, urban transport and energy infrastructure, while respecting sustainability criteria for procurement on both sides, inter alia the new EU procurement and concession package entering into force in 2016
Amendment 498 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xi a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point b – point xi a (new)
(xia) to ensure that the US increases the transparency of the adjudication process in force on its territory by establishing a single portal for the publication of invitations to tender so as to provide better visibility of public procurement contracts to foreign bidders;
Amendment 608 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c – point iv a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point c – point iv a (new)
(iva) to ensure that decisions taken by the regulatory cooperation organisation responsible for establishing future common standards cannot deprive European Member States of the right to establish higher standards;
Amendment 683 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point d – point vii
Paragraph 1 – point d – point vii
(vii) to ensure that in course of the negotiations the two sides examfined ways to facilitate natural gas and oil exports, so that TTIP would abolish any existing export restrictions on energy between the two trading partners, thereby supporting a diversification of energy sources; to ensure that the opening up of the energy market is supported by a strategic transatlantic energy partnership aiming to assure energy security for the EU.
Amendment 779 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xiv a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xiv a (new)
(xiva) ensure that negotiations on TTIP include a medium-term aim of establishing a permanent independent international court with jurisdiction to resolve disputes related to international investments;
Amendment 790 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xv
Paragraph 1 – point d – point xv
(xv) to ensure that TTIP includes an ambitious Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) chapter that includes strong protection of precisely and clearly defined areas of IPR, including enhancedfull protection and recognition of European Geographical Indications (GIs), and reflects a fair and efficient level of protection such as laid out in the EU’s and the US’s free trade agreement provis (Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Indications of Origin) favouring the export of such products; to ensure in addition that TTIP reflects a fair and efficient level of protections in thise area of IPR, while continuing to confirm the existing flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), notably in the area of public health;;