On May 2, 2016 Greenpeace Netherlands released a package of leaked negotiation texts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the U.S.. The documents are compiled on a dedicated website called “TTIP Leaks.” According to Greenpeace, the revealed TTIP documents “confirm major risks for climate, environment and consumer safety.” Among other aspects, Greenpeace highlights that the precautionary principle, embedded in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, is not mentioned in the regulatory cooperation chapter of TTIP. Instead, the U.S. demand a ‘risk based’ approach to manage hazardous substances rather than avoiding them, Greenpeace states. “This approach undermines the ability of regulators to take preventive measures, for example regarding controversial substances like hormone disrupting chemicals,” Greenpeace explains. Several non-profit organizations, such as ChemSec, CHEM Trust, HEAL and CIEL, and the European Consumer Organisation have expressed concern over TTIP’s impacts on chemical safety in the EU and the U.S. The organizations thus recommend excluding chemicals from the regulatory cooperation chapter of TTIP.
In response to the leaked TTIP documents, Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Trade, stated that the documents “reflect each side’s negotiating position, nothing else.” Further, “no EU trade agreement will ever lower our level of protection of consumers, or food safety, or of the environment,” Malmström asserted. “The positions of the EU are well-known and nothing new,” Malmström writes and refers to the public website containing the European Commission’s positions on all matters in the TTIP negotiations.
Read more
Greenpeace (May 1, 2016). “Leaked TTIP documents confirm major risks for climate, environment and consumer safety.”
Greenpeace (2016). “TTIP leaks.”
ChemSec (May 2, 2016). “Leaked TTIP documents reveal ambitions to lower environmental protection.”
Sewell Chan (May 2, 2016). “Greenpeace leaks U.S.-EU trade deal documents.” The New York Times
Cecilia Malmström (May 2, 2016). “Negotiating TTIP.” European Commission
SRF (May 2, 2016). “TTIP: ‘US-Forderungen, die für Europa schwer zu verdauen sind.’” (in German)
SRF (May 2, 2016). “TTIP: USA setzen EU offenbar massiv unter Druck.” (in German)
Deirdre Fulton (May 3, 2016). “Leaked documents confirm TTIP ‘amounts to a huge transfer of power from people to big business.’” EcoWatch
