Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, democracy, rights and the rule of law

Motion for a resolution | Doc. 13557 | 30 June 2014

Signatories:

Mr Geraint DAVIES, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Mohammed AMEUR, Morocco ; Lord Donald ANDERSON, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Paride ANDREOLI, San Marino, SOC ; Ms Khadija ARIB, Netherlands, SOC ; Ms Bernadette BOURZAI, France, SOC ; Mr Michael CONNARTY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Mihai-Viorel FIFOR, Romania, SOC ; Ms Maria GIANNAKAKI, Greece, SOC ; Mr Gerardo GIOVAGNOLI, San Marino, SOC ; Ms Snežana JONICA, Montenegro, SOC ; Mr Charles KENNEDY, United Kingdom, ALDE ; Mr Dirk Van der MAELEN, Belgium, SOC ; Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER, Switzerland, SOC ; Sir Alan MEALE, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Melita MULIĆ, Croatia, SOC ; Mr Nicos NICOLAIDES, Cyprus, SOC ; Ms Sandra OSBORNE, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Mechthild RAWERT, Germany, SOC ; Ms Linda RIORDAN, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Dimitrios SALTOUROS, Greece, SOC ; Mr Frank SCHWABE, Germany, SOC ; Mr Damir ŠEHOVIĆ, Montenegro, SOC ; Mr Predrag SEKULIĆ, Montenegro, SOC ; Mr Yanaki STOILOV, Bulgaria, SOC ; Mr Konstantinos TRIANTAFYLLOS, Greece, SOC

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership includes investor-State disputes settlements that are being designed in secret so enabling multi-national companies to intimidate and sue governments for lost profits due to Government policies designed to protect the public as consumers or workers or to change the level of public ownership. According to that Partnership, such settlements will be decided in private by arbitration panels, not in open court. Such action and arrangements threaten to compromise our established democracy, human rights and the rule of law; and the shared fruits of trade should not be at the expense of the social and economic justice that our democracy demands.

Therefore, the Parliamentary Assembly should ensure that all proposed arrangements are fully scrutinised within our committee structures and no arrangements are made which compromise our Council of Europe founding principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.