‘Stop TTIP’ petition is legitimate, top EU court rules

Rejected by Brussels for its lack of a legal basis, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) calling for an end to the EU’s free trade negotiations with the US and Canada was yesterday (10 May) vindicated by the Court of Justice of the EU. EURACTIV France reports.

The European Commission had no legitimate reason to oppose the “Stop TTIP” ECI, the EU’s top court ruled on Wednesday.

The initiative calls on the European institutions and the EU member states to stop their negotiations with the United States on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and not to ratify the recently-concluded free trade agreement with Canada (CETA).

But the Commission blocked the ECI, submitted by the NGO ATTAC in Germany and supported by the Greens, on institutional grounds. This move was denounced by the initiative’s supporters, who took their fight to the EU’s General Court in an attempt to have the decision annulled.

One million signatures

If an ECI collects one million signatures from at least seven member states, the Commission is obliged to take action. With more than three million signatures, the “Stop TTIP” initiative was particularly successful and more than qualified for consideration from Brussels.

According to the judges, the Commission’s arguments did not stand up against the ECI’s objective to “improve the democratic functioning of the EU by granting every citizen a general right to participate in democratic life”.

“Contrary to the Commission’s contentions,” the court’s press release stated, “nothing prevents […] the institutions of the EU from negotiating and concluding new draft transatlantic free-trade agreements following the adoption by the Council of acts which are the object of that proposal”.

The ruling was welcomed in a tweet by the European Parliament’s Greens group as “good news for democracy”.

Wednesday’s judgement “has made evident that the European Commission’s use of legalistic arguments to refuse to register the Stop TTIP EU Citizens’ Initiative was a violation of citizens’ democratic rights,” said Green MEP Josep Maria Terricabras.

“We owe it to the over three million citizens that signed this ECI to finally make the European Citizens’ Initiative a fully functional tool of direct democracy in Europe,” he added.

Contacted by EURACTIV, the EU executive said it was committed to examining the conclusions of the judgement, while stressing the recent change in the rules governing ECIs: successful petitions are now discussed during meetings of the College of Commissioners, which implies that any decision will be made by the whole executive team.

Reforms to come

In the five years since it was launched, the ECI has failed in its objective of strengthening citizen participation in the democratic process.

Since 2012, just three ECIs, out of the forty or so submitted, have crossed the million signature threshold. The Commission has promised to review the instrument in 2017.