Rede auf TTIP Stakeholder Forum, Washington

I want to express the deepest issues of european non governmental organisations for the shady and ongoing negotiations. Although on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean the protest against TTIP is growing, the negotiators don’t take this into consideration. On the contrary, they spread diversionary tactics. The so called european transparency initiative and the so called advisory committee are nothing more than red herring. In fact our civil societies are facing a drainage of democratic power, when multinational corporations decide behind closed doors on the terms and conditions of traderelated standards and limits. Today our societies are looking for a paradigm shift from industrial society into an open and participating information society with open government structures. On the contrary, Investor state dispute settlements and regulatory cooperations are a fundamental threat for civil rights and the integrity of our societies on all levels.

I would like to introduce some basic questions which has been not answered so far by the negotiators:

1) In which fields the american trade negotiators see disadvantages for european corporations in the USA which would justify an ISDS lawsuit?

2) What exactly has been discussed and agreed apan between EU and US negotiators on regulatory cooperation? And How would these regulatory cooperation pro visions apply to states in the United States and Member States in the European Union?

3) How do american negotiators justify the secrecy of informations on internal TTIP paper, although Freedom of information acts allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and negotiations.

Finally: The USA-European relationship is facing a severe crisis. citizens from Madrid to Rome, from Berlin to Helsinki distrust the USA and their NSA surveillance. The once so strong and trustworthy relationship was tarnished when the citizens of Europe got caught literally with their pants down after being confronted with the massive intrusion of their privacy. Therefore european activists do not accept a trade agreement that overrides the data security and the protection of privacy. TTIP advocates for a free and uncontrolled flow of informations and data. Profiles and data includes individual informations on finances, health, politics, race/ethnicity, children and social media relations. These continuously gathered data will be made available to databrokers.Data basically becomes merchandise. Without any regulatory rules for U.S. commercial privacy in line with the EU,
Europeans will be vulnerable to their data being made available to government authorities.
Combining big data and mass surveillance is not leading into anything else than Orwells 1984. People who fear they’re being observed, will stop expressing their opinions openly. It is the end of one of the biggest achievements of democratic societies, the freedom of speech.

As you all invest so much of your precious time into this agreement, be aware that there will be no Free trade agreement completed if there is no data security and no protection of privacy included. Also there will be no Free Trade Agreement if there is an investor state dispute settlement or a total intrasparent regulatory cooperation which menaces basic democratic rights of citizens. Finally, there will be no Freetrade agreement between USA and EU if there is no trust, no transparency, no involvement of the civil society into the creation of the biggest trade zone of the world.
labor unions, insurance associations, eco-activists, christian organisations, humanrights and internet activists, a wide range of various groups of civil organizations are giving their effort to let TTIP stumble, fall and perish as it happened with ACTA.
Take your final chance and let the citizens of Europe and USA fully partizipate.