Vieuws | 17 November 2015
EU Trade Insight: Schulz and Lange push for inclusion of ICS in CETA – in brief
European Parliament President, Martin Schulz and Chair of the EP’s International Trade Committee, Bernd Lange said they wanted the Investment Court System (ICS) that has been proposed for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to be also part of the EU free trade agreement with Canada, known as CETA.
“We will not treat Canada and US differently regarding the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism. New ISDS is needed for Canada as well,” Schulz told a conference on TTIP, co-hosted by the Luxembourg EU Presidency, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, on 17 November, in Brussels.
Lange echoed Schulz’s statement. “On CETA, we want to have the ICS in this agreement,” he said, arguing that it would be logical not only to include the new court-like system in TTIP but also in the agreement with Canada. “We should try our utmost to have the ICS in CETA,” Lange added.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström reiterated that adjustments to the agreement with Canada that was concluded in 2014 are possible. But she firmly stated that re-opening of talks is not on Commission’s agenda. “It is not realistic to renegotiate it,” Malmström said, without going into details.
According to sources, the Commission has been waiting for the parliamentary elections in Canada to take place before trying to conclude the ongoing legal scrubbing of the CETA. “Now, after a new government has been appointed in Ottawa, the talks are expected to resume,” an EU source told this website.
The Commission pledged in the new EU Trade Strategy to submit CETA to the Council and the European Parliament for approval “as early as possible in 2016.”
Shortly after talks with Canada were concluded in August 2014, some MEPs, including the Socialists in particular, launched a diplomatic offensive to re-open the CETA in order to renegotiate its investment protection chapter. Now, they insist on incorporating the Investment Court System into the deal.
