European Parliament
2014 - 2019

TEXTS ADOPTED
Provisional edition

P8_TA-PROV(2015)0252
Negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP)
European Parliament resolution of 8 July 2015 containing the European Parliament’s
recommendations to the European Commission on the negotiations for the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) (2014/2228(INI))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the EU directives for the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US, unanimously adopted by the
Council on 14 June 20131 and declassified and made public by the Council on 9 October
2014,
– having regard to Articles 168 to 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union (TFEU), and in particular to the precautionary principle enshrined in Article
191(2),
– having regard to the Joint Statement of the EU-US Summit of 26 March 20142,
– having regard to the joint statement of 20 March 2015 by Commissioner Cecilia
Malmström and US Trade Representative Michael Froman regarding the exclusion of
public services in EU and US trade agreements,
– having regard to the Council Conclusion on TTIP of 20 March 2015,
– having regard to the Council conclusions on TTIP of 21 November 20143,
– having regard to the joint statement of 16 November 2014 by US President Barack
Obama, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Herman
Van Rompuy, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
French President François Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Spanish

1
2
3

http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-11103-2013-DCL-1/en/pdf
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/141920.pdf
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/145906.pdf

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, following their meeting on the margins of the G20
Summit in Brisbane, Australia1,
– having regard to the European Council conclusions of 26-27 June 20142,
– having regard to President Juncker’s political guidelines of 15 July 2014 addressed to the
next Commission and entitled ‘A New Start for Europe: My Agenda for Jobs, Growth,
Fairness and Democratic Change’3,
– having regard to the Commission’s communication to the College of the Commission of
25 November 2014 on transparency in TTIP negotiations (C(2014)9052)4, to the
Commission decisions of 25 November 2014 on the publication of information on
meetings held between Members of the Commission and organisations or self-employed
individuals (C(2014)9051) and on the publication of information on meetings held
between Directors-General of the Commission and organisations or self-employed
individuals (C(2014)9048), to the judgments and opinions of the Court of Justice of the
European Union (C-350/12 P, 2/13, 1/09) on access to documents of the institutions and
the decision of the European Ombudsman of 6 January 2015 closing her own-initiative
inquiry (OI/10/2014/RA) concerning the European Commission on dealing with requests
for information and access to documents (Transparency),
– having regard to the joint statement of 3 December 2014 by the EU-US Energy Council5,
– having regard to the EU integrated approach to food safety (‘farm to fork’) established in
20046,
– having regard to the Commission report of 13 January 2015 on the online public
consultation on investment protection and investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in
the TTIP (SWD(2015)0003),
– having regard to the EU’s textual proposals tabled for discussion with the US in the TTIP
negotiating rounds, in particular those which have been declassified and made public by
the Commission, inter alia the EU position papers entitled ‘TTIP regulatory issues engineering industries’7, ‘Test–case on functional equivalence: proposed methodology for
automotive regulatory equivalence’8, and ‘Trade and sustainable development
chapter/labour and environment: EU paper outlining key issues and elements for
provisions in the TTIP’9, and the textual proposals on technical barriers to trade (TBT)10,
sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)11, customs and trade facilitation12, small and

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-14-1820_en.htm
http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-79-2014-INIT/en/pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/docs/pg_en.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/news/2014/docs/c_2014_9052_en.pdf
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-2341_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/information_sources/docs/from_farm_to_fork_
2004_en.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153022.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153023.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153024.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153025.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153026.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153027.pdf

medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)1, possible provisions on competition2, possible
provisions on state enterprises and enterprises granted special or exclusive rights or
privileges3, possible provisions on subsidies4, and dispute settlement5, initial provisions on
regulatory cooperation6,
– having regard to the opinion on ‘The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP)’ of the Committee of the Regions (ECOS-V-063) adopted during the 110th
plenary session (11-13 February 2015), and to the opinion of the European Economic and
Social Committee of 4 June 2014 on ‘Transatlantic trade relations and the EESC's views
on an enhanced cooperation and eventual EU-USA FTA’,
– having regard to the Final Inception Report of 28 April 2014 by ECORYS for the
Commission entitled ‘Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment (Trade SIA) in support of
negotiations of a comprehensive trade and investment agreement between the European
Union and the United States of America’7,
– having regards to the Commission's 2015 report on Trade and Investment Barriers
(COM(2015)0127) 8,
– having regard to the ‘Detailed Appraisal of the European Commission’s Impact
Assessment on EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’ published on
April 2014 by CEPS for the Parliament,
– having regard to its earlier resolutions, in particular those of 23 October 2012 on trade and
economic relations with the United States9, 23 May 2013 on EU trade and investment
negotiations with the United States of America10, and 15 January 2015 on the annual
report on the activities of the European Ombudsman 201311,
– having regard to Rules 108(4) and 52 of its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on International Trade and the opinions of
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on
Economic and Monetary Affairs, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on
Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer
Protection, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Committee on
Culture and Education, the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on Civil Liberties,
Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, and the Committee on
Petitions (A8-0175/2015),

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153028.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153029.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153030.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153031.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153032.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/february/tradoc_153120.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2014/may/tradoc_152512.pdf
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/march/tradoc_153259.pdf
OJ C 68 E, 7.3.2014, p. 53.
Texts adopted, P7_TA(2013)0227.
Texts adopted, P8_TA(2015)0009.

A. whereas exports through trade and growth through investments are key drivers of jobs and
economic growth which do not require government investments;
B. whereas the EU’s GDP is heavily dependent on trade and export and benefits from trade
and investment based on rules and whereas an ambitious and balanced agreement with the
US should support the reindustrialisation of Europe and help to achieve the 2020 target for
an increase in the EU’s GDP generated by industry from 15 % to 20 % by strengthening
trans-atlantic trade in both goods and services; whereas it has the potential to create
opportunities especially for SMEs, micro enterprises (in accordance with the definition of
Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC), clusters and enterprise networks which
suffer disproportionally more from non-tariff barriers (NTBs) than larger companies, as
the latter have economies of scale that allow them easier access to markets on both sides
of the Atlantic; whereas an agreement between the two biggest economic blocs in the
world has the potential to create standards, norms and rules, which will be adopted at a
global level, which would serve to the advantage of third countries as well and which
would prevent a further fragmentation of world trade; whereas failure to negotiate an
agreement will allow other third countries with different standards and values to assume
this role instead;
C. whereas nine Member States of the European Union have already signed a bilateral
agreement with the USA, so allowing TTIP to take inspiration from good practice and
better enable the obstacles encountered by these Member States to be overcome;
D. whereas the recent crises on the EU's borders and developments around the world show
the need to invest in global governance and a system based on rules and values;
E. whereas, given the growing interconnectedness of global markets, it is crucial that policy
makers shape and promote the interaction of markets; whereas proper trade rules and
removing unnecessary barriers are fundamental to creating added value while maintaining
and developing a strong, competitive and diversified industrial base in Europe;
F. whereas EU's attempts to deal with the challenges of climate change, environmental
protection and consumer safety have resulted in high regulatory costs for EU enterprises,
coupled with high energy feedstock and electricity prices, which – if left unaddressed in
TTIP – may accelerate the process of delocalization, deindustrialization and job losses
thereby threatening EU reindustrialization and employment targets, that will also defeat
the very policy targets that EU regulations seek to achieve;
G. whereas a well-designed trade agreement could contribute to harnessing the opportunities
of globalisation. Whereas a strong and ambitious trade agreement should not only focus on
reducing tariffs and NTBs but should also be a tool to protect workers, consumers and the
environment; whereas a strong and ambitious trade agreement is an opportunity to create a
framework by strengthening regulation to the highest level, in line with our shared values,
thereby preventing social and environmental dumping and ensuring a high level of
consumer protection in light of the shared objective of open competition on a levelplaying field;
H. whereas even though, common high standards are in the interest of consumers, it should
be recognised that convergence also makes sense for businesses, as the higher costs
stemming from higher standards may be better compensated by increased economies of
scale in a potential market of 850 million consumers;

I. whereas previous trade agreements have shown significant benefits for the European
economy, it is difficult to assess the real impact of TTIP on both the EU and US
economies and to predict while negotiations are ongoing and studies show contradictory
results; whereas TTIP alone will not resolve longstanding structural economic problems
and their underlying causes in the EU but should be seen as an element in a broader
European strategy to create jobs and growth, and expectations for TTIP should be
commensurate with the level of ambition that will be reached in the negotiations;
J. whereas the consequences of the Russian embargo have clearly demonstrated the
continuous geopolitical relevance of agriculture, the importance of having access to a
range of different agricultural markets and the need for strong and strategic trade
partnerships with reliable trade partners;
K whereas it is important for European agriculture to secure a mutually beneficial trade deal
with the US in order to advance Europe’s position as a key player on the global market
without jeopardising the current quality standards of European agricultural products and
future improvement of those standards, while preserving the European agricultural model
and ensuring its economic and social viability;
L. whereas trade and investment flows are not an end in themselves and the well-being of
ordinary citizens, workers and consumers as well as increased opportunities for business
as drivers of growth and jobs are the benchmarks for a trade agreement; whereas TTIP
should be considered a model for a good trade agreement responding to these
requirements in order to serve as an example for our future negotiations with other trade
partners;
M. whereas a certain degree of confidentiality is required in negotiations in order to achieve a
high quality outcome, and the limited level of transparency in which the negotiations have
been conducted in the past has led to deficiencies in terms of democratic control of the
negotiation process;
N. whereas President Juncker has clearly reiterated in his Political Guidelines that he wants a
balanced and reasonable trade agreement with the United States and that – while the EU
and the US can go a significant step further in recognising each other’s product standards
and working towards transatlantic standards – the EU will not sacrifice its (food)-safety,
health, animal health, social, environmental, and data protection standards and cultural
diversity; recalling that the safety of the food we eat, the protection of Europeans’
personal data and its services of general interest are non-negotiable unless the aim is to
achieve a higher level of protection;
O. whereas it is important to ensure a satisfactory conclusion of the negotiations on the Safe
Harbor and the Data Protection Umbrella Agreement;
P. whereas President Juncker has also clearly stated in his political guidelines, that he will
not accept that the jurisdiction of courts in the Member States is limited by special
regimes for investment disputes; whereas now that the results of the public consultation on
investment protection and ISDS in the TTIP are available, a reflection process – taking
account of the contributions – is currently being undertaken within and between the three
institutions, while exchanging with civil society and the business sector, on the best way
to achieve investment protection and equal treatment of investors while ensuring states’
right to regulate;

Q. whereas Parliament fully supports both the decision of the Council to declassify the
negotiation directives and the Commission’s transparency initiative; whereas the lively
public debate across Europe on TTIP has shown the need for the TTIP negotiations to be
concluded in a more transparent and inclusive manner taking into account the concerns
voiced by European citizens and communicating the negotiation results to the general
public;
R. whereas since July 2013 talks between the US and the EU have been going on, but up to
now no common text has been agreed;
S. whereas TTIP is expected to be a mixed agreement requiring ratification by the European
Parliament and all 28 EU Member States;
1. Believes that the EU and the US are key strategic partners; stresses that the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the most significant recent EU-US project and
should reinvigorate the transatlantic partnership as a whole, beyond its trade aspects;
emphasises that its successful conclusion is of high political importance;
2. Addresses, in the context of the ongoing negotiations on TTIP, the following
recommendations to the Commission:
(a) regarding the scope and the broader context:
(i)

to ensure that transparent TTIP negotiations lead to an ambitious,
comprehensive and balanced trade and investment agreement of a high
standard that would promote sustainable growth with shared benefits across
Member States, with mutual and reciprocal benefits between the partners,
increase international competitiveness and open up new opportunities for EU
companies, in particular SMEs, support the creation of high-quality jobs for
European citizens, directly benefit European consumers; the content and the
implementation of the agreement are more important than the speed of the
negotiations;

(ii)

to emphasise that while the TTIP negotiations consist of negotiations on three
main areas – ambitiously improving reciprocal market access (for goods,
services, investment and public procurement at all levels of government),
reducing NTBs and enhancing the compatibility of regulatory regimes, and
developing common rules to address shared global trade challenges and
opportunities – all these areas are equally important and need to be included in
a comprehensive package; TTIP should be ambitious and binding on all levels
of government on both sides of the Atlantic, the agreement should lead to
lasting genuine market openness on a reciprocal basis and trade facilitation on
the ground, and should pay particular attention to structural measures to
achieve greater transatlantic cooperation while upholding regulatory standards
and consumer protection and preventing social, fiscal and environmental
dumping;

(iii)

to keep in mind the strategic importance of the EU-US economic relationship
in general and of TTIP in particular, inter alia as an opportunity to promote the
principles and values, anchored in a rules-based framework, that the EU and
the US share and cherish and to design a common approach and vision to
global trade, investment and trade-related issues such as high standards, norms

and regulations, in order to develop a broader transatlantic vision and a
common set of strategic goals; to bear in mind that given the size of the
transatlantic market, TTIP is an opportunity to shape and regulate the
international trade order in order to ensure that both blocs thrive in an
interconnected world;
(iv)

to ensure, especially given the recent positive developments taking place in the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), that an agreement with the US serves as a
stepping-stone for broader trade negotiations and is not pre-empting or
counteracting the WTO process; bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements
should generally speaking be considered as a second-best option and must not
prevent efforts made in order to reach significant improvements on the
multilateral level; TTIP must ensure synergies with other trade agreements
currently being negotiated;

(v)

to bear in mind that the TFEU defines EU trade policy as an integral part of the
Union’s overall external action and, therefore, to evaluate the implications of
the final agreement, acknowledging opportunities, such as easier market access
due to common trans-Atlantic standards, and risks, such as trade diversion from
developing countries due to tariff preference erosion;

(vi)

to ensure that the agreement guarantees full respect for EU fundamental rights
standards through the inclusion of a legally binding and suspensive human
rights clause as a standard part of EU trade agreements with third countries;

(b) regarding market access:
(i)

to ensure that the market access offers in the different areas are reciprocal,
equally ambitious and reflect both parties’ expectations, underlines that the
different proposals for those areas must be balanced;

(ii)

to aim at the elimination of all tariff duties while respecting that there are a
number of sensitive agricultural and industrial products on both sides for
which exhaustive lists will have to be agreed upon during the negotiation
process; to foresee for the most sensitive products appropriate transitional
periods and quotas and in a few cases their exclusion, taking into account the
fact that in many cases those products have higher production costs in the EU
owing to EU rules;

(iii)

to have a safeguard clause incorporated into the agreement, as is clearly set
out in the negotiating mandate, which would be invoked where a rise in
imports of a particular product threatened to cause serious harm to domestic
production, with specific reference to food production and to the energyintensive, carbon-leakage, chemicals, raw materials and steel sectors in the
EU;

(iv)

to keep in mind that as the EU is the largest trading bloc worldwide there are
important offensive interests for the EU in the highly specialised services
sector, for instance in the area of engineering and other professional services,
telecommunication, financial or transport services;

(v)

to increase market access for services according to a "hybrid list approach",
using for market access "positive lists", whereby services that are to be
opened up to foreign companies are explicitly mentioned and new services
are excluded while ensuring that possible stand-still and ratchet clauses only
apply to non-discrimination provisions and allow for enough flexibility to
bring services of general economic interest back into public control as well as
to take into account the emergence of new and innovative services and using
"negative list approach" for national treatment;

(vi)

the negotiations should meaningfully address and remove the current US
restrictions on maritime and air transport services owned by European
businesses as a result of US legislation such as the Jones Act, Foreign
Dredging Act, the Federal Aviation Act and the US Air Cabotage law and in
relation to capital restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines, which
seriously hinders market access for EU companies as well as innovation in
the US itself;

(vii)

to build on the joint statement reflecting the negotiators’ clear commitment to
exclude current and future Services of General Interest as well as Services of
General Economic Interest from the scope of application of TTIP, (including
but not limited to water, health, social services, social security systems and
education), to ensure that national and if applicable local authorities retain the
full right to introduce, adopt, maintain or repeal any measures with regards to
the commissioning, organisation, funding and provision of public services as
provided in the Treaties as well as in the EU's negotiating mandate; this
exclusion should apply irrespective of how the services are provided and
funded;

(viii)

to strive hard to ensure mutual recognition of professional qualifications,
notably via the creation of a legal framework with federal states that have
regulatory powers in this domain, in order to enable EU and US professionals
to practise on either side of the Atlantic and to facilitate mobility of investors,
professionals, highly -skilled workers and technicians between the EU and
the US in sectors covered by TTIP;

(ix)

to bear in mind that visa facilitation for European service and goods providers
is a key element for taking advantage of the agreement and to increase, in the
context of the negotiations, political pressure on the US to guarantee full visa
reciprocity and equal treatment for all citizens of EU Member States without
discrimination as regards their access to the US;

(x)

to combine market access negotiations on financial services with convergence
in financial regulation at the highest level, in order to support the introduction
and compatibility of necessary regulation in order to reinforce financial
stability, to ensure adequate protection for consumers of financial goods and
services and support ongoing cooperation efforts in other international
forums, such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the
Financial Stability Board; to ensure that these cooperation efforts do not limit
the EU and member states regulatory and supervisory sovereignty, including
their ability to ban certain financial products and activities;

1

(xi)

to establish enhanced cooperation between the EU, the Member States and
the US, including mechanisms for more efficient international cooperation
with the aim to set global higher standards against financial and tax
criminality and corruption;

(xii)

to ensure that the EU’s acquis on data privacy is not compromised through
the liberalisation of data flows, in particular in the area of e-commerce and
financial services, while recognizing the relevance of data flows as a
backbone of transatlantic trade and the digital economy; to incorporate, as a
key point, a comprehensive and unambiguous horizontal self-standing
provision, based on Article XIV of the General Agreement on Trade in
services (GATS), that fully exempts the existing and future EU legal
framework for the protection of personal data from the agreement without
any condition that it must be consistent with other parts of the TTIP; to
negotiate provisions which touch upon the flow of personal data only if the
full application of data protection rules on both sides of the Atlantic is
guaranteed and respected to cooperate with the United States in order
to encourage third countries to adopt similar high data protection standards
around the world;

(xiii)

to keep in mind that the consent of the European Parliament to the final TTIP
agreement could be endangered as long as the US blanket mass surveillance
activities are not completely abandoned and an adequate solution is found for
the data privacy rights of EU citizens, including administrative and judicial
redress, as stated in the paragraph 74 of Parliament’s resolution of 12 March
20141;

(xiv)

to ensure that the trust between the EU and US, which was damaged by mass
surveillance scandals, be rapidly and fully restored;

(xv)

to include am ambitious chapter on competition ensuring that European
competition law is properly respected particularly in the digital world; to
ensure that private companies can compete fairly with state-owned or statecontrolled companies; to ensure that state subsidies to private companies
should be regulated and subject to a transparent control system;

(xvi)

to call for open competition in and development of the digital economy,
which is by nature global but has its main bases in the EU and the USA; to
emphasise in the negotiations that the digital economy must be central to the
transatlantic market, with leverage in the global economy and in opening up
global markets further;

(xvii)

to keep in mind regarding information society services and
telecommunications services, that it is of particular importance that the TTIP
ensure a level playing field with equal and transparent access based on
reciprocity for EU service companies to the US market and with an obligation
on US service providers to respect and comply with all relevant industry and
product safety standards and consumer rights when providing services in
Europe or to European customers;

Texts adopted, P7_TA(2014)0230,

(xviii)

to ensure via a legally binding general clause applicable to the entire
agreement, in full compliance with the UNESCO Convention on the
protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, that the
parties, reserve their right to adopt or maintain any measure (in particularly
those of a regulatory and/or financial nature) with respect to the protection or
promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity, in line with the relevant
Articles as established in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union, as well as media freedom and media pluralism, irrespective of the
technology or distribution platform used and keeping in mind that the
mandate given to the European Commission by the Member States explicitly
excludes the audiovisual services;

(xix)

to specify that nothing in the agreement shall affect the ability of the EU or
EU Member States to subsidise and provide financial support to cultural
industries and cultural, educational, audiovisual and press services;

(xx)

to confirm that fixed book price systems and price fixing for newspapers and
magazines will not be challenged by the obligations under the TTIP
agreement;

(xxi)

to ensure with a general clause the right of EU Member States to adopt or
maintain any measure with regard to the provision of all educational and
cultural services which work on a non-profit basis and/or receive public
funding to any degree or state support in any form, and to ensure that
privately funded foreign providers meet the same quality and accreditation
requirements as domestic providers;

(xxii)

given the huge interest on the part of European companies, notably SMEs, in
obtaining non-discriminatory access to public contracts in the US both at
federal and sub-federal level, for example for construction services, civil
engineering, transport and energy infrastructure and goods and services, to
have an ambitious approach to the chapter on public procurement, while
respecting the compliance of the chapter with the new EU public procurement
and concession directives, with a view to remedying, in line with the principle
of reciprocity, the large disparity that currently exists in the degree of
openness of the two public procurement markets on both sides of the Atlantic
by significantly opening up the US market (still governed by the Buy
American Act of 1933) at federal and sub-federal level alike building on
commitments made in the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)
and by removing the restrictions that currently apply at federal, state and local
level alike in the United States; and to set up mechanisms to guarantee that
commitments entered into by the US federal authorities will be honoured at
all political and administrative levels;

(xxiii)

to ensure, with the aim of creating open, non-discriminatory and predictable
procedural requirements ensuring equal access for EU and US companies,
especially SMEs, when tendering for public contracts, that the US increases
the transparency of the adjudication process in force on its territory;

(xxiv)

to promote EU-US cooperation at the international level in order to promote
common sustainability standards for public procurement at all federal and
sub-federal levels of government, inter alia in the implementation of the

recently revised Government Procurement Agreement; and the adoption and
observation of social responsibility standards by businesses based on the
Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD);
(xxv)

to ensure that the US states are included in the negotiation process in order to
achieve meaningful results in opening up US public procurement contracts to
EU companies;

(xxvi)

to be aware regarding public procurement of the sensitive nature of the fields
of defence and security and to take into account the objectives set by the
Heads of States and Governments during the 2013 Defence Council to
promote the establishment of a European security and defence market and of
a European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB);

(xxvii) to ensure that the negotiations on rules of origin aim at reconciling the EU
and US approaches and at establishing effective rules of origin, thereby
avoiding that rules of origin are undermined by other agreements, to consider
the negotiations as an opportunity to move towards common standards for
compulsory origin marking of products; given the conclusion of the
negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
between the EU and Canada and the potential upgrade of the EU-Mexico free
trade agreement, the possibility and scope of cumulation will need to be
considered; however to keep in mind that the purpose of TTIP is to facilitate
trade in genuinely US and EU made products and not to allow imports from
third countries, therefore exclusions for certain products will need to be
considered on a case by case basis and exclusions from all type of cumulation
should be granted for sensitive sectors;
(xxviii) to ensure that TTIP is an open agreement, and to look for ways in which
valued partners, which have an interest in the TTIP negotiations because of
Customs Union agreements with either the EU or the US, can be more
actively informed of the developments;
(c) regarding regulatory cooperation and coherence pillar and NTBs:
(i)

to ensure that the regulatory cooperation chapter promotes a transparent,
effective, pro-competitive economic environment through the identification and
prevention of potential future non-tariff barriers to trade, which
disproportionately affect SME's, and the facilitation of trade and investment
while developing and securing the highest levels of protection of health and
safety in line with the precautionary principle laid down in Article 191 TFEU,
consumer, labour environmental and animal welfare legislation and of cultural
diversity that exists in the EU; to support, whilst fully respecting regulatory
autonomy, the establishment of a structured dialogue and cooperation between
regulators in the most transparent way possible and involving stakeholders; to
include cross-cutting disciplines on regulatory coherence and transparency for
the development and implementation of efficient, cost-effective, and more
compatible regulations for goods and services; negotiators on both sides need
to identify and to be very clear about which technical procedures and standards
are fundamental and cannot be compromised, which ones can be the subject of
a common approach, which are the areas where mutual recognition based on a

common high standard and a strong system of market surveillance is desirable
and which are those where simply an improved exchange of information is
possible, based on the experience of several years of talks in a variety of fora
including the Transatlantic Economic Council and the High Level Regulatory
Cooperation Forum to ensure similarly that it will not affect standards that have
yet to be set in areas where the legislation or the standards are very different in
the US as compared with the EU, such as, for example, the implementation of
existing (framework) legislation (e.g. REACH), or the adoption of new laws
(e.g. cloning), or future definitions affecting the level of protection (e.g.
endocrine disrupting chemicals); to ensure that any provisions on regulatory
cooperation in the TTIP do not set a procedural requirement for the adoption of
Union acts concerned by it nor give rise to enforceable rights in that regard;
(ii)

to base negotiations on SPS and TBT measures on the key principles of the
multilateral SPS and TBT agreements and to protect European SPS standards
and procedures; to aim in the first place at the elimination or significant
reduction of excessively burdensome SPS measures including related import
procedures; in particular to ensure that pre-approvals, obligatory protocols or
pre-clearance inspections are not applied as a permanent import measure; to
achieve increased transparency and openness, mutual recognition of equivalent
standards, exchanges of best practices, strengthening of dialogue between
regulators and stakeholders and strengthening of cooperation in international
standards-setting bodies; to ensure in negotiations on SPS and TBT measures,
that the high standards that have been put in place in order to ensure food
safety, human, animal or plant life or health in the EU are not compromised in
any way;

(iii)

to recognise that, where the EU and the US have very different rules, there will
be no agreement, such as on public healthcare services, GMOs, the use of
hormones in the bovine sector, REACH and its implementation, and the
cloning of animals for farming purposes, and therefore not to negotiate on these
issues;

(iv)

to encourage the US side to lift the ban on beef imports from the EU;

(v)

with regard to the horizontal regulatory cooperation chapter, to foster bilateral
regulatory cooperation in order to avoid unnecessary divergence, particularly as
regards new technologies and services, for the benefit of European and US
competitiveness and consumer choice; to achieve this through enhanced
information exchange and to improve the adoption and implementation of
international instruments, whilst respecting the subsidiarity principle, on the
basis of successful precedents such as ISO standards or under the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) World Forum for
Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29); to remember that the
recognition of equivalence of the greatest possible number of vehicle safety
regulations based on a verified equivalent level of protection would be one of
the most important achievements of the agreement; to ensure that the prior
impact assessment for each regulatory act should measure its impact on
consumers and the environment next to its impact on trade and investment; to
promote regulatory compatibility without compromising the legitimate
regulatory and policy objectives and the competences of the EU and US
legislators;

(vi)

to aim to continue to guarantee a high level of product safety within the Union
while eliminate unnecessary duplication of testing that causes a waste of
resources, in particular on low-risk products;

(vii)

to address customs issues that go beyond the WTO Trade Facilitation
Agreement (TFA) rules and stress that, in order to achieve real administrative
burden removal, there is a need to work towards a maximum degree of
regulatory alignment on customs and border related policies and practices;

(viii) to define clearly, in the context of future regulatory cooperation, which
measures concern TBT and duplicated or redundant administrative burdens and
formalities and which are linked to fundamental standards and regulations, or
procedures serving a public policy objective;
(ix)

to fully respect the established regulatory systems on both sides of the Atlantic,
as well as the European Parliament’s role within the EU’s decision-making
process and its democratic scrutiny over EU regulatory processes when
creating the framework for future cooperation while at the same time ensuring
the utmost transparency and being vigilant about having a balanced
involvement of stakeholders within the consultations included in the
development of a regulatory proposal and not do delay the European legislative
process; to specify the role, the composition and the legal status of the
Regulatory Cooperation Body, taking into consideration that any direct and
compulsory application of its recommendations would imply a breach of the
law-making procedures laid down in the Treaties; to also monitor that it fully
preserves the capacity of national, regional and local authorities to legislate
their own policies, in particular social and environmental policies;

(d) regarding the rules:
(i)

to combine negotiations on market access and regulatory cooperation with the
establishment of ambitious rules and principles bearing in mind that each pillar
has specific sensitivities, on issues such as, but not limited to, sustainable
development, energy, SMEs, investment and state-owned enterprises;

(ii)

to ensure that the sustainable development chapter is binding and enforceable
and aims at the full and effective ratification, implementation and enforcement
of the eight fundamental International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions
and their content, the ILO's Decent Work Agenda and the core international
environmental agreements; provisions must be aimed at further improving
levels of protection of labour and environmental standards; an ambitious trade
and sustainable development chapter must also include rules on corporate
social responsibility based on OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
and clearly structured dialogue with civil society;

(iii)

to ensure that labour and environmental standards are not limited to the trade
and sustainable development chapter but are equally included in other areas of
the agreement, such as investment, trade in services, regulatory cooperation and
public procurement;

(iv)

to ensure that labour and environmental standards are made enforceable, by
building on the good experience of existing FTAs by the EU and US and

national legislation; to ensure that the implementation of and compliance with
labour provisions is subjected to an effective monitoring process, involving
social partners and civil society representatives and to the general dispute
settlement which applies to the whole agreement;
(v)

to ensure, in full respect of national legislation, that employees of transatlantic
companies, registered under EU member state law, have access to information
and consultation in line with the European works council directive;

(vi)

to ensure that the economic, employment, social, and environmental impact of
TTIP, is also examined by means of a thorough and objective ex-ante trade
sustainability impact assessment (SIA) in full respect of the EU Directive on
SIA, with clear and structured involvement of all relevant stakeholders,
including civil society; asks the Commission to conduct comparative in-depth
impact studies for each Member State and an evaluation of the competitiveness
of EU sectors and their counterparts in the US with the aim to make projections
on job losses and gains in the sectors affected in each Member State, whereby
the adjustment costs could be partly taken up by EU and Member State
funding;

(vii)

to retain the objective of dedicating a specific chapter to energy, including
industrial raw materials; to ensure that in course of the negotiations the two
sides examine ways to facilitate energy exports, so that TTIP would abolish any
existing restrictions or impediments of export for fuels, including LNG and
crude oil, between the two trading partners, with the aim of creating a
competitive, transparent and non-discriminatory energy market thereby
supporting a diversification of energy sources, contributing to security of
supply and leading to lower energy prices emphasises that this energy chapter
must integrate clear guarantees that the EU's environmental standards and
climate action goals must not be undermined; to encourage EU-US cooperation
to end fuel tax exemptions for commercial aviation in line with the G-20
commitments to phase out fossil fuel subsidies;

(viii) to ensure that the right of either partner to govern and to regulate the
exploration, exploitation and production of energy sources remains untouched
by any agreement, but that the principle of non-discrimination is applied once
exploitation is decided; to keep in mind that nothing in the agreement should
undermine legitimate non-discriminatory democratic decisions with regard to
energy production, in accordance with the precautionary principle; to ensure
that access to raw materials as well as to energy should also be granted on a
non-discriminatory basis for companies from either the EU or the US and
quality standards for energy products must be respected, including those for
energy products related to their impact on CO2 emissions such as the one
enshrined in the Fuel Quality Directive;
(ix)

to ensure that TTIP supports the use and promotion of green goods and
services, including through facilitating their development, and simplifies their
exports and imports thereby tapping into the considerable potential for both
environmental and economic gains offered by the transatlantic economy and
complementing the on-going plurilateral negotiations on the Green Goods
agreement with the aim of contributing to fight combat global warming and to
create new jobs in the green economy;

(x)

to ensure that TTIP serves as a forum for the development of ambitious and
binding common sustainability standards for energy production and energy
efficiency, always taking into account and adhering to existing standards on
both sides such as the EU energy labelling and eco-design directives and to
explore ways to enhance cooperation on energy research, development and
innovation and promotion of low-carbon and environmentally friendly
technologies;

(xi)

to ensure that TTIP contributes to the sustainable management of fishery
resources, particularly through cooperation between the parties in combatting
illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU);

(xii)

to ensure that TTIP includes a specific chapter on SME’s in TTIP based on the
joint commitment of both negotiating parties and aims at creating new
opportunities in the US for European SMEs (including micro enterprises), on
the basis of SME exporters’ actual reported experience, for instance by
eliminating double certification requirements, by establishing a web-based
information system about the different regulations and best practices, by
facilitating access to support schemes for SME, by introducing ‘fast-track’
procedures at the border or by eliminating specific tariff peaks that continue to
exist; it should establish mechanisms for both sides to work together to
facilitate SMEs’ participation in transatlantic trade and investment, for instance
through a common SME ‘one-stop shop’ with SMEs stakeholders playing a key
role in its establishment, which would provide specific information they need
to export to, import from or invest in the US, including on customs duties, on
taxes, on regulations, on custom procedures and on market opportunities;

(xiii) to ensure that TTIP contains a comprehensive chapter on investment including
provisions on both market access and investment protection, recognising that
access to capital can stimulate jobs and growth; the investment chapter should
aim at ensuring non-discriminatory treatment for the establishment of European
and US companies in each other’s territory, while taking account of the
sensitive nature of some specific sectors; these should look to enhance Europe
as a destination for investment, increase confidence for EU investment in the
US and also address investors' obligations and responsibilities by referring,
inter alia, to the OECD principles for multinational enterprises and to the UN
principles on Business and human rights as benchmarks;
(xiv) to ensure that investment protection provisions are limited to postestablishment provisions and focus on national treatment, most-favoured
nation, fair and equitable treatment and protection against direct and indirect
expropriation, including the right to prompt, adequate and effective
compensation; standards of protection and definitions of investor and
investment should be drawn up in a precise legal manner protecting the right to
regulate in the public interest, clarifying the meaning of indirect expropriation
and preventing unfounded or frivolous claims; free transfer of capital should be
in line with the EU treaty provisions and should include a prudential carve-out
not limited in time in the case of financial crises;
(xv)

to ensure that foreign investors are treated in a non-discriminatory fashion,
while benefiting from no greater rights than domestic investors, and to replace
the ISDS system with a new system for resolving disputes between investors

and states which is subject to democratic principles and scrutiny, where
potential cases are treated in a transparent manner by publicly appointed,
independent professional judges in public hearings and which includes an
appellate mechanism, where consistency of judicial decisions is ensured, the
jurisdiction of courts of the EU and of the Member States is respected, and
where private interests cannot undermine public policy objectives;
(xvi) to ensure that TTIP includes an ambitious, balanced and modern chapter on and
precisely defined areas of intellectual property rights, including recognition and
enhanced protection of geographical indications and reflects a fair and efficient
level of protection, without impeding the EU’s need to reform its copyright
system and while ensuring a fair balance of IPRs and the public interest, in
particular the need to preserve access to affordable medicines by continuing to
support the TRIPS flexibilities;
(xvii) to consider it to be of great importance that the EU and the US remain
committed and engaged in global multilateral patent harmonisation discussions
through existing international bodies and thus cautions against attempting to
introduce provisions on substantive patent law, in particular with regard to
issues relating to patentability and grace periods, into the TTIP;
(xviii) to ensure that the IPR chapter does not include provisions on the liability of
internet intermediaries or on criminal sanctions as a tool for enforcement, as
having been previously rejected by Parliament including the proposed ACTA
treaty;
(xix) to secure full recognition and strong legal protection of EU geographical
indications and measures to deal with improper use and misleading information
and practices; to guarantee the labelling, traceability and genuine origin of
these products for consumers and the protection of the know-how of producers
as an essential part of a balanced agreement;
(e) regarding transparency, civil society involvement, public and political outreach:
(i)

to continue ongoing efforts to increase transparency in the negotiations by
making more negotiation proposals available to the general public, to
implement the recommendations of the European Ombudsman, in particular
relating to the rules on public access to documents;

(ii)

to translate these transparency efforts into meaningful practical results, inter
alia by reaching arrangements with the US side to improve transparency,
including access to all negotiating documents for the Members of the European
Parliament, including consolidated texts, while at the same time maintaining
due confidentiality, in order to allow Members of Parliament and the Member
States to develop constructive discussions with stakeholders and the public,; to
ensure that both negotiating parties should justify any refusal to disclose a
negotiating proposal;

(iii)

to promote an even closer engagement with the Member States, who were
responsible for the negotiating mandate which directed the European
Commission to open negotiations with the US, with the aim of forging their
active involvement in better communicating the scope and the possible benefits

of the agreement for European citizens, as committed to in the Council
Conclusions adopted on 20 March 2015, in order to ensure a broad, fact-based
public debate on TTIP in Europe with the aim of exploring the genuine
concerns surrounding the agreement;
(iv)

to reinforce its continuous and transparent engagement with a wide range of
stakeholders, throughout the negotiation process; encourages all stakeholders to
participate actively and to put forward initiatives and information relevant to
the negotiations;

(v)

to encourage Member States to involve national parliaments in line with their
respective constitutional obligations, to provide all the necessary support for
Member States to fulfil this task and to strengthen outreach to national
parliaments, in order to keep national parliaments adequately informed on the
ongoing negotiations;

(vi)

to build on the close engagement with Parliament and to seek an even closer,
structured dialogue, which will continue to closely monitor the negotiating
process and to engage on its part with the Commission, the Member States, and
the US Congress and Administration, as well as with stakeholders on both sides
of the Atlantic, in order to ensure an outcome which will benefit citizens in the
EU, the US and beyond;

(vii)

to ensure that TTIP and its future implementation is accompanied by a
deepening of transatlantic parliamentary cooperation, on the basis and using the
experience of the Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue, leading in future to a
broader and enhanced political framework to develop common approaches,
reinforce the strategic partnership and to improve global cooperation between
the EU and US;

3. Instructs its President to forward this resolution containing the European Parliament’s
recommendations to the Commission and, for information, to the Council, the
governments and parliaments of the Member States, and the US Administration and
Congress.