In an
astonishing move which ignores the opinion of millions of citizens
who oppose ISDS, the governments of Austria, France, Finland,
Germany and the Netherlands (AFFGN) have made a sly attempt to
institutionalise ISDS throughout the European Union. According to a
leaked non-paper, on the 7th April representatives of these five
nations made a proposal to the EU Council’s Trade Policy Committee
which would in effect create a plurilateral treaty based on foreign
investment protection within the EU. A move which was suspiciously
followed by publication of a similar proposal on Business Europe’s
website in what appears to have been a coordinated action.
Western
European countries and Central and Eastern European Countries that in
the mean time have become members of the EU concluded dozens of
Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITS) between after the collapse of
the Communist regimes. The EC has maintained that these BITs are in
contradiction with EU law, create discrimination between member
states and economic actors and should be terminated. But because they
failed to enforce this, investors in EU member states have in the
meantime challenged the policies of other EU governments over a
hundred times. The proposal by the AFFGN would in deed terminate
these BITs but at the same time launch a new super intra-EU
investment agreement that would grant investor privileges across the
entire Union.
As Amélie
Canonne from AITEC, a member of the S2B Network states, ‘this
proposal would institutionalise ISDS in the European Union giving
unacceptable breadth of power to corporate interests who place profit
before our health, the environment and social concerns. Hundreds of
investor-state dispute cases have already by bought by companies who
perceive social protection to be harmful to their profits.’
The proposal would also undermine the internal market as Amélie
Canonne goes on to explain ‘the ISDS system, in whatever
modality, discriminates in favour of cross-border investors over
local, is based in an undemocratic system of arbitration and abuses
tax payers money to serve corporate interests.’
At a time
when the European Union is struggling for identity and under fire
from all sides for being out of touch with the reality of people’s
lives, this is seen as a cynical and hypocritical attempt by five
it’s leading Member States to undermine the public interest. Which
begs the question, how far will some countries in the bloc go to
allow trade interests to take over completely?
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