European farmers and pro-democracy activists demonstrate against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership near the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on December 19. Photo: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

The European Commission has published a raft of texts setting out EU proposals for legal text in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) it is negotiating with the US. This is the first time the Commission has made public such proposals in bilateral trade talks.

“I’m delighted that we can start the new year by clearly demonstrating through our actions the commitment we made to greater transparency just over a month ago,” said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

“Today’s publication of our specific legal proposals in the context of TTIP marks another first in EU trade policy.”

The so-called ‘textual proposals’ published set out the EU’s specific proposals for legal text that has been tabled in the proposed TTIP. They set out actual language and binding commitments which the EU would like to see in the parts of the agreement covering regulatory and rules issues.

The eight EU textual proposals cover competition, food safety and animal and plant health, customs issues, technical barriers to trade, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and government-to-government dispute settlement (GGDS, not to be confused with ISDS). The Commission also published TTIP position papers explaining the EU’s approach on engineering, vehicles and sustainable development, bringing the total number of position papers it has made public up to 15.

The Commission is also publishing a Reader’s Guide, explaining what each text means. It is also issuing a glossary of terms and acronyms, and a series of factsheets setting out in plain language what is at stake in each chapter of TTIP and what the EU’s aims are in each area.

“I’m particularly pleased that we’re including explanations in non-technical language to go alongside the legal texts,” said Malmström. “It’s important that everyone can see and understand what we’re proposing in TTIP and – just as importantly – what we’re not.”

Although the publication is the first time the Commission has published specific EU legal proposals while negotiating a bilateral trade agreement, it has already posted numerous documents online setting out its position in TTIP on a wide range of issues. The Commission said it intended to publish further texts and proposals in the course of the negotiations, as they become available.

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/ttip-texts