Reply to the European Commission’s Public Consultation on Investment Protection and Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP)
On March 27, 2014 the European Commission launched public consultations on the investment chapter of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a trade and investment agreement under negotiation between the European Union (EU) and the United States.
The first negotiation round took place in July 2013, and the European Commission is targeting mid-2015 as the date for the conclusion of the TTIP. In response to the increased public interest in the TTIP and criticism surrounding the secrecy of the negotiations as well as the content of the investment chapter, particularly the envisaged inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), the EU decided to conduct a 90-day public consultation process on 12 main questions related to investment protection standards and ISDS. Comments can be submitted via an online questionnaire until July 6, 2014. In this context, the European Commission also held a stakeholder meeting with business and non-business participants in May 2014.
The attached report by IISD replies to the European Commission’s questions and statements related to the TTIP public consultation. The report seeks to inform the general public as well as European institutions about the legal implications of the proposed investment chapter text.
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