Ahead of the European Parliament's vote on resolution: European Stop TTIP alliance sends open letter

international | economics and finance | press release Sunday July 05, 2015 12:50 by Stop TTIP

The European Parliament is about to make another attempt to pass a resolution on the EU-US trade deal TTIP this Wednesday. Ahead of this critical vote, an alliance of over 480 organisations from across Europe is calling on MEPs to take the strong resistance from citizens seriously. 2.3 million Europeans have signed a self-organised European Citizens' Initiative that calls for an end of the TTIP negotiations. All MEPs today received the following letter in their native language, signed by the Stop TTIP organisations in their respective country:

Source: https://stop-ttip.org/open-letter/ & https://stop-ttip.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Letter...1.pdf

05.07.2015 Open letter to MEPs

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

We are writing regarding the imminent vote in the European Parliament on the initiative report on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP. We welcome that the European Parliament is forming its opinion on TTIP and the role it has already played in the democratic public debates on the issue. We now appeal to all Members of the European Parliament to take into account the declared will of 2.3 million citizens when considering their position and thus pass a strong resolution that calls for a stop to TTIP negotiations on the basis of the current negotiation mandate. At the very least we ask you to consider the strong criticism ISDS has faced both in the public debate and in the European Commission’s consultation and reject ISDS in any form.

We, the signatories, represent 483 organisations from across Europe, including 14 from Ireland. Our alliance includes trade unions and civil society organisations that represent a wide range of public interests including environmental protection, public health, civil rights, agriculture, consumer rights, animal welfare, social and labour standards, workers’ rights, digital rights and essential public services including education and health.

We have collected more than 2.3 million signatures in the past eight months against the conclusion of TTIP and the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada. This makes Stop TTIP the largest European Citizens’ Initiative to date*.

We want to prevent TTIP and CETA because they include several critical issues such as investor-state dispute settlement and rules on regulatory cooperation that pose a threat to democracy and the rule of law. We want to prevent lowering of standards concerning employment, social, environmental, privacy and consumers and the deregulation of public services (such as water) and cultural assets from being deregulated in non-transparent negotiations.

Yours sincerely,

Afri
Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland
Attac Ireland
Comhlámh
Fis Nua
Fracking Free Ireland
Good Energies Alliance Ireland
Irish Federation of University Teachers
Keep Ireland Fracking Free
Not for Shale
Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI)
TTIP Information Network
Uplift
Young Friends of the Earth Ireland

Representative of 483 organisations of the Europe-wide Stop TTIP alliance

*Stop TTIP is a Europe-wide alliance that was formed to carry out a European Citizens’ Initiative

http://stop-ttip.org

(ECI) on TTIP and CETA. We applied for registration of our ECI on 15 July 2014. On 11 September 2014, the European Commission rejected the registration based on arguments we believe are not in accordance with EU regulations. That’s why we challenge the Commission’s decision in the European Court of Justice and in the meantime carry out our ECI on a self-organised basis. For further information, please see https://stop-ttip.org/about-the-eci-campaign/.