United States Brussels, 16 December 2013

Statement by EU Trade Spokesman John Clancy:

Anti-trade and anti-business lobby group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) have scored an own goal with their latest claims against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The only thing the latest so-called 'leaked document' published by CEO reveals is confirmation of what the EU has been saying all along; namely that any future deal between the EU and the US will 'reaffirm their [EU Member State governments' and the US government's] sovereign right to adopt new regulatory initiatives, to regulate in pursuit of legitimate public, policy objectives and to ensure that their laws and policies provide for and encourage high levels of environmental, health, safety, consumer and labour protection.'

This fact shows that claims to the contrary over the last months are simply false. Furthermore, the so-called 'leaked document' reflects almost in its entirety the EU's initial position paper already made public in July 2013 and available on-line. This sets out how the EU and US could work more closely together, and more openly, when drawing up future regulations. The changes are designed simply to make future regulations more effective and efficient for both business and consumers – nothing more, nothing less.

As for a 'Regulatory Cooperation Council' to oversee any future deal, details of this along with a broad explanation of the regulatory ambitions of the future TTIP agreement were announced by EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht on 10th October in a speech to the Aspen Institute in Prague and widely reported on by the international press including the New York Times.

The EU welcomes an open public discussion on TTIP including the important input from civil society including all stakeholders whether NGOs or business. Unfortunately, CEO only does a disservice to this important discussion with misleading and exaggerated claims once again. Since the launch of EU-US discussions, the EU Commission has welcomed an open public debate but such a debate should be based upon the facts and not the spin.”

For further information

All other EU original position papers on TTIP who were made public