Last week the Government slipped out its response to the previous BIS Select Committee report on TTIP released last March. In light of the fact that one of the criticisms the BIS Committee’s report raised was the lack of engagement by the government with stakeholders concerned by TTIP,…Read more…
Trading names: transatlantic beef about cheese & drugs
The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) being negotiated between the EU and the US keeps throwing up new things to argue about. One of the most arcane is the debate over ‘geographical indications’ (GIs) – names like Vidalia onions from the US or Armagh Bramley…Read more…
What’s wrong with ISDS? Romania’s environment & history under attack
The latest example of what’s wrong with Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) – the privileged route to riches for foreign investors who can persuade a separate international court that they have been disadvantaged by a democratically-elected government – is a case being lodged…Read more…
ISDS: we won’t be fooled by a rebranding
Yesterday, Brussels was full of rumours that the European Commission had finally found a way to respond to the massive backlash generated by its proposal for a special court for US investors: a simple rebranding should do the trick. Currently known as …Read more…
Migrants and benefits report: more hot air
A new report by MigrationWatch, a lobby group that seeks tighter immigration controls, has received much coverage in the press this week as it purports to show that some migrants claim more benefits than residents, or as the Express delicately put it yesterday: ‘foreigners more likely to claim…Read more…
World conference on funding development: much ado about little
The Third International Conference for Financing for Development ended on 16 July in Ethiopia’s capital with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA). The four-day event was organised by the UN in collaboration with the World Bank, IMF and developed and developing nations. It had, according to…Read more…
Planning to let the Greek horse bolt before shutting the stable door
There have been many reactions to the deal forced on the Greek government and its people at the weekend by Eurozone Finance Ministers, mostly outrage or despair. Even the IMF, which bears a lot of the responsibility for imposing an austerity-fuelled re…Read more…
Of course I’ll defend the rights Europe has delivered. But we want better, not just more of the same!
David Cameron is touring national capitals around Europe garnering support for his pre-referendum EU renegotiation strategy. And because his strategy seems to be bad news for British workers, he sometimes finds we’ve been there first. Today, for example, I’ll be travelling to Luxembourg…Read more…
Cameron playing with fire on workers’ rights
The TUC has been criticised for crying wolf over the Prime Minister’s plans to use the EU renegotiation phase of the referendum strategy to attack workers’ rights. But today’s media stories suggest we are spot on the money on both working time and temporary agency workers. The…Read more…
Solidarity in action
In 1973, John Keenan, Robert Somerville and Bob Fulton, three Unite members took a stand against a coup on the other side of the world. They refused to help Pinochet bomb the people of Chile. …Read more…
European Parliament view on EU-US trade deal
The European Parliament has finally voted on its resolution about the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership, or TTIP, the EU-US trade deal being negotiated by Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and US Trade Representative Mike Froman. Most of the news yesterday was about a compromise over…Read more…
Unite Rules Conference – day two
Tuesday’s business was less contentious than Monday’s, but covered a wide range of issues.
In the debate on retired members, Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner clarified that “Executive Statements”, if passed, do actually change rules – it is up…Read more…
Hypocrisy of Eurozone leaders, refusing to admit austerity has failed Greece
It’s difficult to write anything about the Greek crisis without it being immediately out of date although the crisis itself, and the suffering of the Greek people, continues unabated. After the stunning 22% “no” majority in Sunday’s Greek referendum (like Britain’s…Read more…
Why investor protection matters so much in trade deals
The European Parliament will vote at last on Wednesday (unless the vote is postponed again, until the autumn) on the most toxic element of modern trade deals: investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Like the rest of the European trade union movement, we’re calling on MEPs to exclude ISDS,…Read more…
Cameron’s EU renegotiation strategy matters to everyone in Europe
Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem about Nazi persecution begins (in its most quoted version): “first they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist”. It eventually ends up “Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up…Read more…
MEPs must listen to the people and vote down #ISDS compromise in #TTIP debate
Our MEPs look set at last to debate and vote later this week on the promised resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal between the EU and USA. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is calling on MEPs to vote a…Read more…
#TTIP news: 10 reasons why the latest #ISDS compromise is a bad deal
Yesterday the Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament voted 56-34 to endorse a compromise amendment to the Parliament’s draft resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, the EU-US trade deal), covering the controversial issue of Investor-State…Read more…
Join the call to drop Greece’s debt
The government of Greece is in a battle with creditors to overturn austerity policies which have wreaked havoc on the country. Unemployment has been over 20% for four years. One-third of people now live in poverty. The debt cannot be paid and, for Gree…Read more…
TTIP, CETA, TISA: We need to call time on zombie trade deals
Trade affects everyone’s lives. It affects the job you can get, the pay you receive and of course the goods you can buy. But trade policy and negotiations like those being conducted for TTIP, CETA and TiSA affect a lot more than that, and come with huge risks for our society. I’ll be speaking…Read more…
EU putting business interests above others
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady was in Brussels last week for the European Trade Union Confederation executive committee. The executive dealt with many issues of concern to British trade unionists, but none more serious than the concerted effort to restrict and reduce regulatory…Read more…