EU launches public consultation on TTIP element

The European Commission is consulting the EU public on a possible approach to investment protection and investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

In June 2013, the governments of the EU’s Member States instructed the European Commission to start negotiating a free trade agreement with the US. They also gave the Commission guidelines setting out what the negotiations should include. By May 2013, a majority in the European Parliament had welcomed the imminent launch of the negotiations.

In the guidelines they gave to the Commission, the governments stated that the EU should seek to include provisions on investment protection and ISDS in the proposed agreement. negotiations for an agreement – TTIP – started in July 2013.

The proposed approach contains a series of innovative elements that the EU proposes to use as the basis for the TTIP negotiations. The key issue on which the EU is consulting is whether its proposed approach for TTIP achieves the right balance between protecting investors and safeguarding the EU’s right and ability to regulate in the public interest.

Tips for completing the consultation

The questionnaire is long and detailed. Before activating the link to complete the questionnaire, the Commission recommends respondents print out the notice and the consultation document. It also recommends that after reading the notice and the consultation document respondents draft their replies separately offline and then copy/paste them or/and upload them into the respective fields in the questionnaire. Each field has a maximum capacity of 4,000 characters – equivalent to about one-and-a-half pages of text. For technical reasons, the questionnaire must be completed and submitted within 90 minutes.

The deadline for submitting input and comments using the questionnaire is 6 July.

For additional questions contact: Trade-TTIP-Investment-protection-and-ISDS@ec.europa.eu