Tag: European Commission

Postponing the European Parliament’s TTIP resolution is not what consumers want to hear

The European Parliament has been working for months on its recommendations to the Commission on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. No less than 14 committees were involved. At the last minute, the vote was postponed. In this...

and / June 15, 2015

What kind of TTIP does the European Parliament want?

After almost two years of negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal, Members of the European Parliament are now assessing progress and will make recommendations to the negotiators. Those recommendations should not be taken lightly because they will...

/ May 7, 2015

Confirmed intra-EU ISDS mess: An update of the Micula case

In a previous blogpost, I wrote about the European Commission’s Competition authorities’ serving of an injunction on Romania provisionally ordering the country’s government not to pay Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) compensation to a Swedish investor, Micula. The rationale was...

/ April 3, 2015

The new EU proposal on cosmetics: Finally beyond lip service?

Last week, the Commission discretely[1] published on its trade website a new version of its position paper on cosmetics within The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The main difference with the previous paper is that it no longer contains...

/ March 17, 2015

Regulatory cooperation: perhaps boring, but the TTIP storm on the horizon

Disclaimer: This analysis is based on the leaked version of the regulatory cooperation proposal. We will soon provide further analysis based on the textual proposal published by the Commission. Regulatory cooperation is on the face of it one of the least exciting...

/ February 3, 2015

How transparency can help monitor potential scandals in the TTIP negotiations

When I am asked why more transparency is needed in the TTIP negotiations, I reply it is because these trade negotiations are not mere ‘business as usual’; rules affecting our living standards are on the negotiating table and we should...

/ January 30, 2015

New year, new TTIP?

January kicked-off with three exciting developments on TTIP. It seems that in the wake of the 8th negotiating round of February TTIP has finally left its extended winter sleep. European Commission transparency “offensive” It started last week Wednesday when Commissioner...

/ January 16, 2015

Cosmetic products: What TTIP will not make up

On 16/04/2015 this blog post was updated to reflect the change in the number of banned substances used in cosmetics in EU from 1,328 to 1,377.  Cosmetic products have become an indispensable part of our daily routine – from toothpaste to...

/ August 8, 2014

TTIP & trust: Is the Commission backing the wrong horse?

Last week, we published a blog post on the impact of the European Court of Justice ruling on MEP Sophie in’t Veld’s case against the Council. The Court’s decisions clearly stated that access should be ensured to documents relating to...

/ July 30, 2014