Reacting to the publication today of the results of the Commission's public consultation on Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, leading Socialists and Democrats welcomed the Commission's acknowledgement that there are serious problems with the mechanism.
Following a meeting between members of the trade committee in the European Parliament, S&D MEPs reiterated that a serious overhaul of the mechanism is needed to fundamentally protect the right to regulate and limit the use of ISDS to genuine cases of discrimination.
MEP David Martin, S&D spokesperson on international trade, said:
"The Commission seems to be receptive to citizens' concerns but it is still very slow to react. It launched a civil society consultation process on ISDS to which almost 150,000 stakeholders replied. Commissioner Malmström has rightly identified the problems of ISDS, but not yet provided adequate solutions.
"Our Group is open to looking at real improvements, but so far the potential dangers outweigh the benefits of ISDS. If the Commission is not serious about a thorough reform, it would be best to withdraw ISDS altogether."
Bernd Lange, S&D MEP and chair of the parliamentary trade committee, added:
"The results of the public consultation are in line with our demands: there is a need for a fundamental reform of the entire ISDS system, not just certain aspects of it. The current system presented in the consultation is flawed; this is why we have repeatedly called upon the Commission to exclude such provisions from its agreements.
"It is clear that any conclusions drawn from the Commission's consultation on ISDS in TTIP must also apply to the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA)."
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