Undemocratic: EU Commission Breaks Promise for Greater Transparency - Secret TTIP US Trade Agreement

GOOGLE TRANSLATE / GERMAN ORIGINAL TTIP EU tightens secret Pose for TTIP documents German Economic News | Published: 19:08:15 18:14 clock The European Commission breaks its promise for greater transparency when TTIP. Because time and again documents were made public, the access to the documents of the national parliaments will be more difficult in the future. Cecilia Malmstrom now limited access to TTIP documents even more. (Photo: AP) "The European Commission is organizing the negotiations on the transatlantic FTA TTIP as transparent and as responsibly as possible," it says on the part of the EU Commission. Although some NGOs this greatly doubt. However, the Commission believes that it is probably handled too freely with the documents and information about TTIP. "After a few releases of confidential documents, the Commission had to make the decision to design the confidential report on the tenth round of negotiations in a secure reading room," said the Commission. Access to this confidential report will therefore now be even more difficult to see, even for the members of national parliaments. The reason: "This report also includes tactical considerations and our internal assessment of US positions," said Richard Kühnel, representatives of the European Commission in Germany on Friday in Berlin. "Such leaks weaken our negotiating position and make it harder to achieve the best result in the interest of Europe and its citizens. Despite all efforts to maximize transparency, we must try to prevent that. " According to the EU Commission "hitherto most transparent bilateral trade negotiations at all" are the TTIP negotiations. Periodically, the Commission consult with the governments of the 28 Member States and representatives of the European Parliament on the progress of negotiations. "The governments of the EU Member States have access to EU negotiating documents." However, informing the national parliaments was then a matter for the Member States - since, however, apparently confidential documents are made public, governments, the documents no longer simply to their parliamentarians hand off. The Commission generally so if Member States continue to be no problem even confidential documents to their respective parliaments in a secure way. "We support the easiest possible access to documents, provided that confidentiality is maintained," said Kühnel. Just not more in the document to the 10th round of negotiations, such as the decision of the EU Trade Commissioner Malmström shows. t the beginning of the week WikiLeaks had launched a fundraising campaign. Up to 100,000 euros are to be collected in order to move potential whistleblowers to publish from TTIP documents. "The secrecy of TTIP casts a shadow on the future of European democracy," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. SOURCE | German http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2015/08/20/eu-verschaerft-geheim-haltung-fuer-ttip-unterlagen/ Compare the EU Commission's representations in the above article to the reality effective denial of access to EU member governments [ CLICK on image to enlarge ] COMMENT "governments of the EU Member States have access to EU negotiating documents" European Commission representative, Richard Kuhnel Yeah, they have 'access' - with excessive and unreasonable restrictions placed on that access. The reality is that this is yet another secret US trade deal, drawn in favour of corporations, at the expense of the public. This one's been kept from European governments and the public (to prevent the public mounting opposition), while generous access and influence has been granted to:  corporations. The European Commission promises of greater transparency amount to nothing because that's just what they were:  empty, nothing, PR / propaganda promises to pacify critics. Instead of addressing the fact that maintenance of secrecy concerning such an important agreement, amounts to undemocratic denial of information and opportunity for debate to the public, the EU Commission mouthpiece shifts the attention to the earlier leak of TTIP information and implies that this is the justification for the secrecy. But it is this very secrecy - this denial of transparency and denial of democracy - that would have originally led to what is therefore justifiable leak of information.  Facepalm. The reason these US trade agreements are being kept under wraps is that they're bad news. Information which should rightfully be in the public domain, is denied the public.  This denial of information is a denial of informed public consent to terms which are irreversible: Matt Kennard Centre for Investigative Journalism What is so scary about this is that corporations want to lock in their power. So they not only want increased power, they want to make impossible for sovereign governments to reverse the changes which are going to give them power. So, for example, with TTIP, if it passes with ISDS in it, the privatisation of the National Health Service (NHS) which is happening in the UK can never be reversed. More on US trade agreements:   VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABDiHspTJww&t=1m34s ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- TRANSCRIPT ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- Please Support journalist-publisher Julian Assange Under Siege Ecuador embassy London (3 Years) Detained 5 Years No Charge POLITICAL PERSECUTION FAQ & Support https://justice4assange.com/ ꕤ