Archived press release

NGOs Call on MEPs: Say No To EU-US Free Trade

21 April 2004

NGOs have called on Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to reject a resolution that calls for the creation of a transatlantic single market. In the resolution that is on tomorrow's agenda in Strasbourg, the Parliament asks the upcoming EU-US Summit in June '' ..to set up a body of experts to elaborate specific proposals'' towards establishing a Transatlantic single market. (1)

Friends of the Earth Europe has warned that "'Establishing a Transatlantic single market' would seriously harm environment and consumer protection and will therefore be opposed by civil society groups". Alexandra Wandel of Friends of the Earth Europe said: "Negotiations on an EU-US single market would have disastrous consequences, especially considering the excessively anti-environmental and pro-business attitudes of the present Bush administration". The attack of the US on the EU's precautionary stance on GMOs in the WTO is only one example of the deep gap in attitudes towards environment and consumer protection between the two sides of the Atlantic.

Amsterdam-based research group Corporate Europe Observatory has revealed that the Parliament's resolution was effectively pre-cooked by the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) [2]. TPN is a lobby group involving parliamentarians and major EU and US business leaders. The call to launch EU-US free trade talks (as well as other parts of the resolution) can be traced back directly to a December 2003 TPN document, titled "Strategy to Strengthen Transatlantic Partnership" [3]. This is because the chair of the parliament's foreign affairs committee Christian-Democrat Elmar Brok MEP is also a prominent member of TPN [4] .

The call for a transatlantic single market is the latest example of corporate control of the European Parliament.

"In fact, Elmar Brok has simply cut-and-pasted the main TPN demands into the European Parliament resolution", says Olivier Hoedeman, researcher at the Amsterdam-based Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO). "Through the Transatlantic Policy Network, large corporations like Boeing, Nestl and Dow Chemical have managed to engineer European Parliament approval for these controversial proposals, effectively bypassing public opinion and genuine democratic debate", says Hoedeman.

CEO and FoEE are calling upon MEPs and EU member states to halt the creation of a transatlantic free trade zone.

Notes

[1] The EU-US summit that will take place on the 25 - 26 June 2004 in Ireland. President Bush, Commission President Prodi and Irish Prime Minister Bruton will be present. In the draft European Parliament resolution on the state of the Transatlantic Partnership which will be adopted without any amendments on the eve of EU-US Summit in Dublin on 25-26 June 2004 (B5-0000/2004) it says:

"Completing the Transatlantic Market by 2015

13. Proposes the launching of a 10 year Action Plan aimed at deepening and broadening the Transatlantic market as well as the Transatlantic economy and monetary cooperation with a view to establishing a Transatlantic single market by 2015; asks the forthcoming EU-US Summit to set up a body of experts to elaborate specific proposals to this end;

14. Recommends, however, a 2010 accelerated target date for financial services and capital markets, aviation, the digital economy (privacy, security and intellectual property rights); competition policy and regulatory cooperation;

15. Considers that all the above-mentioned initiatives should lead in due time to the conclusion of an EU-US Framework Treaty including the completion of a Transatlantic Market aimed at achieving the free movement of goods, capital, services and persons, taking full account of EU social and environmental legislation and the interests of the developing world;

[2] More info on the TPN membership can be found here:

www.tpnonline.org/who.html

www.tpnonline.org/business.html

www.tpnonline.org/congress.html

www.tpnonline.org/epc.html

www.tpnonline.org/institutions.html

[3] www.tpnonline.org/pdf/1203Outreach.pdf (PDF format)

[4] A list of all MEPs involved in TPN is available from CEO.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust