TTP isn’t just an American phenomenon. It’s happening all over the world. Here’s how Europe is fighting back.
In many European countries, local authorities are declaring their worries or refusals regarding the currently negotiated free trade agreements between the European Union and its economic partners:
● The Transatlantic Trade and Investement Partnership with the USA, also called TTIP;
● The Canada-Europe Trade Agreement with Canada, also called CETA;
● And the Trade in Services Agreement which is negotiated between 23 countries, also called TiSA.
These treaties are paving the way for far-reaching liberalisation. They will jeopardise democratic principles by substantially reducing political space and restricting the scope for public choices via the implementation of the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) or investment court system (ICS, also called “Zombie ISDS”) and by Regulatory Cooperation processes. In order to respond these unprecedented risks in terms of social, economic, environmental and democratic rights, over 1,500 local authorities in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Germany took motions declaring themselves as TTIP/ CETA/ TiSA-free zones or concerned by these treaties.
Today, dozens of millions of European citizens are already living in a TTIP-free zone. You can see a map of TTP free areas here. But many others are not. That’s why, turning the whole of Europe into a TTIP-free zone is a now an objective for hundreds of associations, NGOs, trade unions, farmer unions, and umbrella organisations.
