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European Ombudsman recommendations to European Commission on TTIP transparency

On 7 January, the European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, published a report on the EU-US trade deal and transparency. In it she describes a list of recommendations for the European Commission to improve transparency of the hitherto shadowy negotiations.

The Trans-Atlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the wide trade and investment agreement being negotiated between the European Commission and the USA. The negotiations have provoked public outcry because of their effects on the economy, society and policy. From the outset many criticisms have been raised over the lack of transparency in the process.

In July 2014, the European Ombudsman opened an own initiative inquiry in to the European Commission to ensure more transparency and public participation in the TTIP negotiations. In September 2014, the Ombudsman launched a public consultation in the context of this inquiry so as to find out public opinion on the issues presented in the inquiry. More than 6000 emails were received with more than 300 submissions to the public consultation. EPHA also responded.

In November 2014, the European Commission took some steps to make the negotiating process more transparent, taking concerns of the European Parliament and civil society into account. In response, Factsheets were published by the European Commission (documents with the key points of each negotiating area and written in plain language), accompanied by Position Papers (the European Union’s general approach to negotiating the TTIP) and Textual Proposals (the European Union’s initial proposals for legal text on topics within TTIP).

A small step towards transparency in TTIP negotiations, but more to do.

Considering the new steps taken by the European Commission, the European Ombudsman has outlined further suggestions to make the negotiating process more transparent and open to all:

– Emphasise to the US the necessity of making the negotiating documents public during the negotiations, before the agreement is finalised. The Commission should demand justification from the US in instances where transparency is refused.

– Ensure varied and detailed TTIP documents are available on a dedicated website on trade policy.

– Publish on its website the many TTIP documents it has already released in response to access to documents requests.

– Consider the important suggestions described in the ’Public participation’ section of the Ombudsman’s public consultation report.

– Include transparency obligations to the meetings with any organisations, in the context of TTIP, to the levels of Director, Head of Unit and negotiator and extend throughout the services.

– Publish agendas and records of meetings on TTIP with business organisations, lobby groups or NGOs.

– Confirm that all submissions from stakeholders in the context of TTIP will be published unless the sender gives good reasons for confidentiality.

– Ensure that documents that are released to certain third party stakeholders are released publicly, thereby ensuring that all citizens are treated equally.

To conclude, it is refreshing that during the last few months the European Commission has made some efforts to make the negotiation process with the US more transparent and open to civil society. However, according to the European Ombudsman, further steps should be taken in the area of public access to negotiating texts, disclosure of documents and increase of transparency of the meetings Commissioners hold on TTIP with lobby groups, NGOs and enterprises, so as to provide negotiations with more legitimacy and public trust.

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