DO THE CETA CHECK

CETA, the deal with Canada, might look small and innocent compared to its bigger brother TTIP, but it is not less toxic! It will impact every European citizen in one way or another, whether it be through the food consumed or the cost of hospital visits! CETA will lower hard fought-for standards, carve-out democracy and undermine the rule of law.

Why you should worry about CETA? It is at a way more advanced stage than TTIP. After the European Commission finished negotiations with Canada in February, the treaty text will soon be put forward to the 28 trade ministers in the EU-Council and, later this year, to the European Parliament (EP).

The time before these votes is vital in making sure to get out the word about the issues that you care about to the decision makers. Our governments and the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) need to learn what you think about CETA!

Do the CETA Check!

Stop TTIP applied to carry out an official European Citizens’ Initiative in July 2014. This application was rejected by the European Commission on really shaky legal grounds. We’re challenging this decision in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) but the case is still ungoing. We decided in early October 2014 not to wait for the ECJ but to start a self-organised ECI. We chose to follow the rules of an official ECI as closly as possible – and that’s what we did: We gathered many more than one million signatures and we managed to exceed the country quorum in 23 member states (7 are required). We gathered these signatures in exactly one year, which is the time all ECIs have according to EU rules. That’s why the signature gathering for the self-organised ECI closed on 6 October 2015.

Nevertheless we have decided to continue gathering signatures. TTIP and CETA are not yet defeated and many of our supporters demanded we continue with this action. That’s exactly what we’re doing. However, our signature collection is no longer a self-organised European Citizens’ Initiative and that’s why we decided to change its name. We now call it a European Initiative.

Last but not least: Many thanks to all of you who contributed to the enormous success of the self-organised ECI! Stop TTIP will continue and we promise we will do everything we can to defeat TTIP and CETA.

Stop TTIP and CETA

 

Self-organised European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) against TTIP and CETA

 

Subject matter:

We call on the institutions of the European Union and its member states to stop the negotiations with the USA on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and not to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada.

Main objectives:

We want to prevent TTIP and CETA because they include several critical issues such as investor-state dispute settlement and rules on regulatory cooperation that pose a threat to democracy and the rule of law. We want to prevent lowering of standards concerning employment, social, environmental, privacy and consumers and the deregulation of public services (such as water) and cultural assets from being deregulated in non-transparent negotiations. The ECI supports an alternative trade and investment policy in the EU.

 

The EU soon intends to sign two far-reaching trade agreements: one with Canada (CETA = Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) and one with the USA (TTIP = Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). The official line is that this will create jobs and increase economic growth. However, the beneficiaries of these agreements will be big corporations, not citizens:

  • Investor-State-Dispute Settlement (ISDS): Canadian and US companies would have the right to sue for damages if they believe that they have suffered losses because of government decisions (for instance new laws to protect the environment or consumer rights).

  • Improving or even maintaining our standards for food, labour rights, environmental protection and consumer rights will become much harder.

  • Liberalisation and privatisation would effectively become irreversible.

  • The EU and its member states would come under pressure to allow risky technologies such as fracking or genetic modification.

CETA and TTIP would increase the power of multinationals at the expense of democracy and the public. We must not allow this to happen!

 

Please sign our European Citizens’ Initiative here!