TTIP: time to push negotiations forward, BusinessEurope says

"BusinessEurope calls on the Commission and the United States to give a fresh start to the TTIP negotiations by concluding the phase of information exchange swiftly. It’s time to move on to concrete proposals and to work with a view to consolidating texts", Director General Markus J. Beyrer said on December 8th at a BusinessEurope press conference in Brussels. BusinessEurope calls on Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and US Trade Representative Mike Froman to agree on an ambitious calendar with frequent rounds of negotiations during 2015. "We also ask for strong political commitment from both sides to be able to find compromise solutions in critical topics like regulatory cooperation, public procurement and energy", Beyrer said, supporting that the key objective of Commissioner Malmström’s "new start" initiative should be to allow a political agreement to be reached on TTIP by the end of 2015. The next day, speaking at a joint conference entitled "ISDS – The TTIP’s Achilles heel", Director for International Affairs Luisa Santos restated the importance of having a comprehensive agreement including provisions on investment protection. When EU and US leaders agreed to kick off the TTIP negotiations, the objective was to conclude an ambitious and forward-looking agreement that could respond to the needs and challenges of the 21st century. Investment is central in the transatlantic relations. With TTIP we have the opportunity to agree on a modern, transparent and reliable investment framework, including ISDS, that can cater for the interests of big and small business, giving companies the possibility to explore the opportunities of the transatlantic marketplace.