The newly-elected government in Athens has always been suspicious of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and will use its Parliament majority to sink the EU-US trade pact, claims a former Syriza MEP now turned minister.
by
Sarantis Michalopoulos*
The newly-elected government in Athens has always been suspicious of the
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and will use its
Parliament majority to sink the EU-US trade pact, claims a former Syriza MEP
now turned minister.
EurActiv Greece reports. After making its voice heard in the debate over sanctions on Russia, the
new government in Athens is now making its opposition known to the EU-US trade
deal, TTIP.
Georgios Katrougkalos, a former influential Syriza MEP, who quit his
European Parliament seat to become deputy minister for administrative reform in
the leftist Greek government, said the new leadership in Athens will use its
veto to kill the proposed trade pact – at least in its current form.
Just before the January Greek elections, he told EurActiv Greece that a Syriza-dominated Greek parliament would never ratify the
EU-USA trade deal.
Asked by EurActiv Greece whether the promise still holds now Syriza is in
power, Katrougkalos replied:
“I can ensure you that a Parliament where Syriza holds the majority will
never ratify the deal.
And this will be a big gift not only to the Greek people
but to all the European people”.
Double veto power
The leftist Syriza party may not have an absolute majority in the Greek
Parliament but its junior coalition partner seems to share the same views on
the EU-US trade pact.
Syriza, which won a stunning victory at snap elections a week ago (25
January) formed a coalition with the right-wing anti-austerity Independent
Greeks party, which is intent on opposing laws seen as favourable to big
business.
The coalition gives the new Greek leadership an effective veto power over
TTIP and other deals submitted to Parliament ratification.
Indeed, once the pact is negotiated – a process which may still take over a
year –, it will be submitted for a unanimous vote in the European Council,
where each of the 28 EU national governments are represented.
This means that one country can use its veto power to influence the
negotiations or block the trade deal as a whole, an opportunity Syriza will no
doubt use.
And even if the pact makes it past this first stage, it will then be
submitted to ratification by all parliaments of the 28 EU Member States,
offering opponents a second opportunity to wield a veto.
Welfare state under threat
Like many other leftists and social democrats in Europe, Katrougkalos
raised serious concerns about the Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism,
or ISDS, contained in the pact.
The mechanism is designed to protect companies' foreign investments against
harmful or illegal rulings in the countries where they operate.
It gives them
the chance to take legal action against a state whose legislation negatively
impacts their economic activity.
Katrougkalos underlined the uncertainty surrounding the ISDS
negotiations, saying the European Commission’s precise mandate was unclear.
“An undemocratic practice of lack of transparency has prevailed from the
very beginning of the negotiations,” he claimed.
The newly-appointed minister understands that TTIP’s objective was not to
reduce tariffs, which are already "very low" but to make an
adjustment to the rules governing other sectors.
"It contributes to the
elimination of some bureaucratic procedures on exports, helping this way the
economic efficiency," he said.
But he made clear that the danger lies in the fact that in most economic
fields the regulatory rules are different in the EU and the US.
For him,
multinational companies stand to benefit the most from lower regulatory
barriers, citing banks and brokerage firms, which are subject to weaker
supervision in America than in Europe.
“For example we [the EU] don’t permit GMOs, data protection is
significantly more important as well as the protection of national health
systems,” he said, adding that any consolidation in these rules “will undermine
the way the welfare state is organised in the EU".
Independent Greeks take the same line
Meanwhile, Syriza’s coalition partner, the right-wing anti-austerity
Independent Greeks party, takes a similar stance against TTIP.
In a statement issued on 4 November 2014, the then-opposition party said
the deal will not live up to its promise of relaunching economic activity.
“It is supposed to be an agreement that will boost the real economy, but
its main supporters are international bankers and lobbies,” emphasised Marina
Chrysoveloni, a spokesperson for Independent Greeks.
“In simple words, the speculative capital will have even more freedom to
move […] in a huge single market with eight hundred million people,” she
concluded.
On Syriza’s side, Katrougkalos admitted there was uncertainty about how the
talks will conclude but said he was confident that the trade pact “will be
approved by the European Parliament”.
“The social democrats have objections on ISDS [investor-state dispute
settlement] mechanism but it seems they accept the trade deal’s logic,”
Katrougkalos said.
In his view, the centre-right European People’s Party and
the Liberal ALDE “have a safe majority in Parliament”.
* Journalist at EurActiv Greece