Press Release

EEB and T&E participate in TTIP advisory group

January 27, 2014

The EEB and T&E have given a cautious welcome today to the formation by the European Commission of a new advisory group on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The formation of the group represents the very first step in what is still a long process of improving the transparency and accountability of the negotiations.

This needs to be followed up with more efforts to bring clarity to what the EU is proposing at these talks, in particular in the area of regulatory cooperation and investor protection. Not only to the members of this group but to the wider public.

Pieter de Pous, EEB EU Policy Director and representative on the group, commented: “The EEB has accepted the invitation to participate in this group in order to have a frank and direct exchange with the EU TTIP negotiators on the potential threat of this deal to environmental protection and to insist on some urgently needed openness and clarity.” He added: “We expect that the group’s formation to be only the first stage in the process of bringing these talks into the open and to see the EU abandon at the very least the most problematic elements of a potential deal.”

Jos Dings, T&E Director and representative on the group, commented: “We join this advisory group with a clear agenda: to ensure that TTIP promotes, not hampers current or future environmental policies in Europe or America, and to ensure maximum transparency in the negotiations of the deal.”