Busting the myths of transparency around the EU-US trade deal | Corporate Europe Observatory

Busting the myths of transparency around the EU-US trade deal | Corporate Europe Observatory

On 7 October, the second round of negotiations for a far-reaching transatlantic trade deal will begin in Brussels. Amidst calls for greater openness and public participation, the European Commission has gone into propaganda mode, promoting myths about the transparency and accountability of the talks. See through its feel-good rhetoric with Corporate Europe Observatory’s myth-busting guide to secrecy, corporate influence and lack of accountability in the transatlantic trade negotiations.

For many years, public interest groups have criticised EU trade policy for a lack of transparency, a severe democratic deficit and a rampant corporate bias (see, for example, here, here and here). The European Parliament rejected the infamous Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), with MEPs arguing, with justification, that law negotiated in secret is usually bad law. Now these same MEPs have called for more openness in the negotiations for the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). And digital rights activists have warned the European Commission that secrecy “could kill TTIP just as effectively as it killed ACTA”.

In response, the Commission has gone on a PR offensive. In a series of Q&A, briefing papers about transparency in EU trade negotiations and leaflets explaining why TTIP is not ACTA, the Commission’s trade department (DG Trade) is portraying itself as the model of transparency. “There is more interest in this potential deal than any we have worked on before,” they say, “We realise that this requires new initiatives to shed more light on what is going on throughout the negotiations.”

However these “new initiatives” of theirs cast more shadow than light. Let us guide you through some of the key myths about openness and accountability in DG Trade.