A Pan-European coalition of non-profit groups including campaign partners HEAL, Greenpeace, Générations Futures, EEB, has called for a fundamental change in the negotiations on the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), to protect public health and ensure a transparent and democratic policy debate.
In a joint statement entitled ‘People, environment and democracy before profit and corporate rights’ 120 organisations express a deep concern about the various threats posed by the TTIP.
These civil society and trade union organisations are strongly committed to challenging the ongoing negotiations for the TTIP, in order to ensure transparent and democratic policy debate. They underline that any agreement must serve the public interest and our common future. Signatories represent a wide range of public interests including environmental protection, public health, agriculture, consumer rights and protection of food and farming standards, animal welfare, social and labour standards, workers’ rights, migrant rights, unemployment, youth and women’s issues, development, public access to information and digital rights, essential public services including education, integrity of financial systems, and others.
There are concerns that the TTIP could undermine the EU’s high level of protection against hazardous chemicals. There are vast differences between the EU and US system for addressing the problems arising from toxic chemicals.
Campaign partners HEAL and CHEM Trust have published a briefing entitled “TTIP – how the EU-US trade talks could harm our health by affecting chemicals regulation”.
This briefing introduces the horizontal and particular features of the TTIP that could negatively affect EU chemicals and pesticides management, fracking for natural gas, and dampen the progress made in global fora on international chemicals risks.
The next round of negotiations are to take place in Brussels during the week of 14 July. The EU has now published a proposal for a specific chapter in the agreement on chemicals, which covers prioritising chemicals for assessment and risk management, classifying and labelling chemicals, identifying and addressing emerging issues, and data sharing/confidentiality issues. The rather vague four page text can be found here
Post provided by campaign secretariat HEAL
