Letter to Chancellor Kern on CETA

October 6, 2016

Your Excellency, Chancellor Kern

We, the undersigned, wish to commend you on the concern you have expressed at the potential negative impacts of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, and we call on you to vote against the ratification of the agreement when it comes before the General Affairs Council of the European Union this month.

You are aware of the huge concern that exists across Europe as to the unprecedented new powers that will be granted to North American businesses as a result of trade deals such as CETA and the parallel Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and USA:

• A record 3.5 million people have signed the European Initiative against CETA and TTIP, from all 28 EU member states.
• The European Trade Union Confederation, representing 45 million workers across Europe, has confirmed its outright opposition to CETA.
• The European Public Service Union, representing 8 million European public service workers, has called for the rejection of CETA over its threat to public services.
• National and regional parliaments in Belgium, France, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Netherlands, Bulgaria and Romania have raised serious concerns relating to CETA that could block its ratification at the national level.
• The SPÖ’s sister party in the UK, the Labour Party, has just reaffirmed its opposition to any form of investment court system in EU trade agreements, including CETA.

Recent initiatives undertaken to ease the passage of CETA through the ratification process have done nothing to address the fundamental concerns as to the agreement’s negative aspects.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has confirmed that the binding declaration proposed to ‘clarify’ certain issues in CETA will do nothing to alter the text of the agreement. That declaration will be unable, therefore, to address our concerns as to the substance of CETA.

The introduction of the proposed Investment Court System means that CETA will still grant North American investors the right to sue democratically elected European governments in their own privileged judicial system.

The proposal presented to the EU’s Trade Policy Committee on 16 September for provisional application of CETA means that substantial parts of this highly controversial agreement will still be brought into force before the democratic process of national ratification has run its course.

We commend your repeated statements of concern as to the potential negative impacts of CETA, and we call on you to defend the rights and interests of the people of Europe from the threats posed by CETA by voting against the ratification of the agreement.

Yours sincerely,

European and International Networks