The Commission published a report on the investment protection hearing
Press Release 8/2015
13 January 2015
The European Commission has published its report about the online consultation on investment protection on its website. EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström will hold a press conference on the report in Strasbourg later today.
In March 2014, the Commission of the European Union launched a public consultation on investment protection and investor-to-state dispute settlement in connection with the negotiations on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. The consultation ended on 13 July 2014 and the Commission has been analysing the results since then. A total of 145,000 responses were received, 95 of them from Finland.
The report is factual in nature and includes a summary, drawn up by the Commission, of the responses received. In the report, the Commission identifies four particular areas that require further clarification. These are the right to regulation, the regulation of arbitration, the relationship between domestic judicial systems and arbitration proceedings, as well as a possible appellate procedure.
“I hope the Commission will proceed rapidly with regard to further clarification of the four mentioned areas,” Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Lenita Toivakka states.
“Throughout the entire negotiation process, Finland has encouraged the Commission to the fullest possible openness concerning the TTIP negotiations. We consider public consultations to be an important part of this openness and hearing citizens,” Toivakka stresses.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will continue its series of public hearings on TTIP in spring. The next event will be the fifth of the series.
Both the report and the questions and answers section are available on the Commission’s website(Link to another website.)
Additional information: Miika Tomi, Press Attaché to the Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade, mobile tel. +358 50 574 0507. Jukka Pesola, Head of Unit, tel. +358 295 351 029