Tag: EU
A regulatory tsunami – really?
Memory in politics is often short. Less than a decade after a devastating financial crash caused by a lack of regulation in the financial sector, the gates to deregulation seem to be opening again. Banks like to refer to the...
Will the EU get out of first gear on emissions cheating?
It’s now over half a year since a US agency discovered ‘defeat devices’ in Volkswagen cars to get around air pollution rules. Following the revelations, European decision makers scrambled to act. Now the question is whether long overdue EU measures will...
Will regulatory cooperation in TTIP become a straight-jacket for EU law making?
Regulatory cooperation might sound like a relatively benign and straightforward part of trade agreements. It is actually at the very core of TTIP, a trade deal being negotiated between the US and the EU which would be the world’s largest....
Why reassurances that TTIP will not affect the right to regulate miss the point
At a recent debate on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), advocates for TTIP once again repeated the mantra that nothing in TTIP, not even the section on regulatory cooperation, will affect the right of the parties (the EU,...
Who is going to pay the bill for regulatory cooperation in TTIP?
Ever since I read the European Commission’s proposal on regulatory cooperation I have been trying to figure out how this system will work in practice. One thing which intrigued me was the price tag for engaging in this kind of...
Health: Is TTIP the pill for all our ills?
Transatlantic cooperation, done properly, could have a positive impact on consumers on both sides of the Atlantic in various areas, including health. Nevertheless, reading the EU’s positions on the pharmaceutical and medical devices[1] (e.g. pace makers, hip implants) chapters of...
Consumer crash course on TTIP negotiations: e-labelling
TTIP will not lower consumer protection standards. Or so they say and so why should we assume otherwise? Well, because from time to time you come across over a detail in the haul of TTIP information which makes you question...
“TTIP won’t lower standards” – Well then let’s break down how – UPDATE
Update: 11 September 2015 In this blog, I urged EU policy-makers to give us strong and tangible reassurances that TTIP wouldn’t lower standards. Well, they need to do a better job. The peace of the Brussels’ summer was indeed troubled...
TiSA mandate: a simple piece of paper or a symbol of democratic scrutiny?
While TTIP is in the spotlight… The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are not the only big trade negotiations happening now. The EU and 22 other member states[1] of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are currently negotiating a multi-party...
Regulatory cooperation: perhaps boring, but the TTIP storm on the horizon
Disclaimer: This analysis is based on the leaked version of the regulatory cooperation proposal. We will soon provide further analysis based on the textual proposal published by the Commission. Regulatory cooperation is on the face of it one of the least exciting...