The European Commission today decided that it would be freezing negotiations on an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism in the context of the EU-US trade and investment partnership (TTIP), with a view to launching a public consultation. Commenting on the development, Green trade spokesperson Yannick Jadot said:

"The investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS) is a massive Trojan horse, which could be used by multinational corporations to whittle away EU standards and regulations across a range of policies from the environment to food safety to social protection. This announcement by the European Commission is an important development in the ongoing battle against the controversial EU-US trade negotiations. However, it is only a first step.
"The Greens believe there is overwhelming evidence from around the world on the risks this opaque ISDS procedure poses to long-standing EU standards and regulations through frivolous or disruptive investor claims. As such, ISDS should form no part of the EU's trade policy and the European Commission should not be concluding agreements with non-EU countries including such provisions. Today's announcement provides some initial vindication but we must remain vigilant to ensure ISDS is truly excluded.
"The Greens have consistently raised concerns about the TTIP negotiations and have called for a more general freeze to the negotiations, citing lack of transparency in addition to concerns about threats to EU standards and regulations. We will continue to push for this."

Richard More O'Ferrall,
Press and media officer,
Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament
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