Activities of Patrick LE HYARIC related to 2014/2228(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) (A8-0175/2015 - Bernd Lange) FR
Negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) (debate) FR
Amendments (39)
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point i
Paragraph 1 – point i
i) to ensure that TTIP will make a significant positive contribution to creating more and better jobs and set ambitious global trade standards for sustainable development and labour; to guarantee that existing standards, in particular social, environmental, and workplace health and safety standards, are protected against all kinds of regulatory and competition dumping, improved and expanded;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point ii
Paragraph 1 – point ii
ii) ) to ensure that TTIP includes comprehensive provisions on labour laws and policies that are consistentcomply with the core ILO Conventions and the Decent Work Agenda, with a commitment to promote higher standards, to combat all forms of social dumping and, furthermore, to ensure that where disputes arise labour provisions will have a conditional dimensionalways take precedence;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point iii
Paragraph 1 – point iii
iii) to ensure that the horizontal dimensions of labour and social provisions are recognised and, fully integrated into all relevant operationand defended in all parts of the agreement to ensure a coherent and comprehensive approach to trade and sustainable development in the trade agreements;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. Whereas tariff barriers between the US and the European Union are practically non-existent in many sectors and a transatlantic trade agreement will therefore bear essentially on US and European standards, which however constitute the responses of legislators to economic, social, and environmental issues;
Amendment 57 #
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 provisionsrespect the overwhelming opposition in civil society against TTIP which has been clearly expressed by the 1.5 million European citizens who have signed the Citizens' Initiative against TTIP;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. Whereas these standards reflect different histories, cultures, and balance of forces, differ in their approaches and responses, fit within different legal and administrative frameworks, so that the convergence of standards on the basis of a trade agreement could unbalance their entire framework, rendering them inappropriate and ineffective, and thus undo the work of the legislators;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. Whereas a major trade agreement with the United States could reduce the ability of national and European legislators to legislate, put the sovereignty of citizens at risk, undermine the democratic foundations of the European project and overwhelm remaining European policies within an economic context which is no longer political;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point iv
Paragraph 1 – point iv
iv) to ensure that civil society can make a meaningful, consistent contribution to drawing up and implementing relevant TTIP provisions through supervisory committees involving its representatives;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. Whereas the lack of transparency in impact assessments, the absence of analyses and objective consideration of this new type of agreement even though it could have a significant impact on the European agricultural, industrial and services sectors and on the rights of European workers, consumers and citizens;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
Ae. Whereas the objective of concluding the negotiations by the end of 2015, as announced by Heads of State at the Council on 19 and 20 March, is unrealistic and irresponsible;
Amendment 71 #
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 standards for, manage and regulate public servicesunequivocally exclude public services, including Services of General Interest and Services of Non-Economic Interests, as well as rules on public procurement from areas that can be liberalised;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point v
Paragraph 1 – point v
v) to take immediate steps to safeguard the right of EU governments to legislate, by prohibiting any arbitration system that takes precedence over the national courts and guaranteeing the Member States’ right to organise, set quality and safety standards for, manage and regulate public services;
Amendment 84 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point vi
Paragraph 1 – point vi
(vi) to ensure that the specific challenges faced by SMEs are fully taken into accouthe 87 percent of all SMEs in Europe which are not involved in export but relies on domestic demand are fully taken into account; and to identify and clearly communicate which sectors and branches are likely to be adversely affected by TTIP prior to the signing of an agreement;
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point vi
Paragraph 1 – point vi
vi) to ensure that the specific challenges faced by SMEs are fully taken into account, to protect them, without diluting existing social and environmental standards, from all forms of competition relating to employment standards, conditions and pay and other causes of social and environmental dumping;
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point vii
Paragraph 1 – point vii
vii) to take steps to promote the uptake of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which must be additional to and not replace existing labour and environmental laws, and encourage providing information to and consulting workers and their representatives;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point viii
Paragraph 1 – point viii
viii) to guarantee that agreement on any dispute-settlement mechanism must safeguard the primacy of the national courts, take into account the results ofand concerns noted in the public consultation on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), must beensure that any dispute settlement mechanism is fully transparent and, democratically accountable and mustcompliant with national law, and does not hinder legislators from passing laws in the area of employment policy;
Amendment 128 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point ix
Paragraph 1 – point ix
ix) to take steps to embed an unambiguous ‘positive listing’ approach in the agreement, while enabling the Member States to define the goods and services they will keep out of the agreement, removing any ‘ratchet effect’ from this list when the Member States wish to return to opportunities taken up by competitors or nationalise their activities;
Amendment 135 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 – point x
Paragraph 1 – point x
(x) to ensure that statistical projections on job losses/gains, and on sectors, affected are constantly updated so that timely intervention can be undertaken by the Commission to support affected sectors, regions or Member States.; Believes that the negotiations are based on a flawed and biased impact assessment study which has not addressed the negative impacts on employment, job displacement, public finances and trade diversion1 ; __________________ 1 The Commission Impact assessment of TTIP is based on analysis carried out by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). However, a number of independent studies which have critically assessed the CEPR studies points out that the study has exaggerated the claims of growth and job creation. "Nor does it contain an adequate assessment of the risks or drawbacks", says the European Parliament Impact Assessment team (IMPA) (page 8 of the EP Initial appraisal of a European Commission Impact Assessment http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/et udes/note/join/2013/507504/IPOL- JOIN_NT%282013%29507504_EN.pdf )
Amendment 438 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vii b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point b – point vii b (new)
(viib) to take immediate action to prevent fiscal competition, namely through the dumping in the taxation of profits and financial gains and maintenance of offshores and other fiscally privileged zones;
Amendment 879 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Calls for the negotiations in progress to stop on the basis of US and European mandates;
Amendment 880 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Draws attention to the reservations of non-governmental organisations, civil society and trades unions in relation to a transatlantic trade agreement, as expressed in particular by a petition signed by more than 1.5 million citizens and recognised by the European Ombudsman;
Amendment 881 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Calls for disclosure of the negotiating texts and the contents of proposals, the greatest possible transparency in relation to the negotiations and, when required by the negotiating conditions, access for elected representatives and the social partners to the most sensitive documents.
Amendment 882 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Recalling the repeated scandals concerning illegal espionage by US authorities, such as Echelon, SWIFT and NSA, on European citizens, and the complicity of a number of major US Internet and ICT businesses, calls for the greatest possible care in the negotiation of chapters relating to protection of data and privacy;
Amendment 883 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1e. Calls for the inclusion of clauses reflecting all European regulation guaranteeing respect for private life, confirming the rights of individuals to information on and control of the use made of their personal data, guaranteeing their ownership of it and prohibiting any transfer of data from one body to another, even for the purposes of storage or processing;
Amendment 884 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 f (new)
Paragraph 1 f (new)
1f. Notes the wide divergence between the structures of agricultural production, the phytosanitary regulations and the agricultural policies of the European Union and USA, which will create equally significant instability, unfair competition and risk for European agriculture and for employment in its agri-food businesses, particularly for small producers, who are already severely affected by the abandoning of mechanisms for the control of production and regulation of prices;
Amendment 885 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 g (new)
Paragraph 1 g (new)
1g. Rejects any harmonisation of the regulation of agricultural production, or toleration in imports to the European Union of certain production practices or ingredients contrary to European phytosanitary rules, particularly in relation to genetically modified organisms, feed or animal welfare;
Amendment 886 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 h (new)
Paragraph 1 h (new)
1h. Rejects the concept of “equivalence of standards” which would involve accepting imports of products with reduced standards;
Amendment 887 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 i (new)
Paragraph 1 i (new)
1i. Considers that the protection of European agricultural product designations should be extended and should not be restricted to a shorter list of flagship products, the economic viability of which is already guaranteed by widespread recognition;
Amendment 888 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 j (new)
Paragraph 1 j (new)
1j. Is concerned by the disastrous consequences for American and European workers of a trade agreement which increases competition between them on the basis of factors other than their production alone, such as labour costs, working conditions, social protection and industrial relations;
Amendment 889 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 k (new)
Paragraph 1 k (new)
1k. Asks that a trade agreement should ensure that existing standards, particularly those relating to social security, health and safety at work, employment conditions and social dialogue, are protected against any regulatory or competitive dumping, that they are improved and extended in line with ILO conventions and that the USA ratifies the conventions;
Amendment 890 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 l (new)
Paragraph 1 l (new)
1l. Notes the importance attached by European citizens to high quality public services, which are the drivers of social and territorial cohesion;
Amendment 891 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 m (new)
Paragraph 1 m (new)
1m. Recalls that the European model of services of general economic interest led to uncontrolled opening up of markets and violent competition between the providers of such services, undermining security of employment in the sectors concerned and causing deterioration in the quality of service; suggests therefore that to make this model an “offensive interest” for European negotiators neither reinforces it in the eyes of the European service-user nor affords any benefit to the future American consumer; and is also concerned by the compensatory measures sought by US negotiators in return for the opening up of the market in American public contracts.
Amendment 892 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 n (new)
Paragraph 1 n (new)
1n. Reaffirms the right of States to define, finance and organise their public services as they wish, and their right to regulate the social and solidarity economy and to come to the aid of sectors in difficulty;
Amendment 893 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 o (new)
Paragraph 1 o (new)
1o. Rejects any “ratchet clause” which would limit the power of States to revisit markets opened-up to competition in order to regulate or nationalise businesses;
Amendment 894 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 p (new)
Paragraph 1 p (new)
1p. Supports provisions to limit competition in public contracts or to impose quotas for the use of local production capacity or local services and materials, such as the “Buy American Act”.
Amendment 895 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 q (new)
Paragraph 1 q (new)
1q. Notes that European Member States and the United States of America work within the rule of law, with an independent judiciary and the possibility of recourse to the courts guaranteeing the rights of citizens and investors;
Amendment 896 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 r (new)
Paragraph 1 r (new)
1r. Rejects any mechanism for resolving disputes between investors and States or public authorities which is not subject to national law, existing national arbitration bodies, as such mechanisms place themselves above national courts and restrict legislative powers conferred by citizens;
Amendment 897 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 s (new)
Paragraph 1 s (new)
1s. Is concerned that the strategic objectives of the transatlantic agreement are to establish future standards for world trade, through the critical mass of the economic area which it would create, even though these were rejected by developing countries in negotiations during the WTO Doha round;
Amendment 898 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 t (new)
Paragraph 1 t (new)
1t. Rejects negotiation based on unrestricted competition between production, workers and standards, which would restrict the right of States to legislate; rejects the underlying intention to dominate; and proposes instead a cooperative approach, respecting the sovereignty of the people and encouraging the best in social and environmental terms;