TTIP is in agreement to create “An economic NATO”

 

Statement of Neoklis Sylikiotis, member of the Political Bureau of AKEL

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 7th April 2015, Nicosia

 

Today’s meeting of AKEL with the Cyprus Consumers Association is part of the campaign we have launched to inform the Cypriot people about the promotion of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the US.

TTIP is not some conventional trade agreement but a colossal agreement that will unify the markets of the EU and US, creating the so-called “economic NATO”.

TTIP’s main goal is not the lifting of tariffs in US-EU trade, which in fact are already extremely low. Its main goal is the abolition of “regulatory” barriers. That is to say, legislation on labour relations, the requirements for environmental protection, standards for consumer’s safety, whilst public health will be drastically curbed. TTIP’s purpose is to lift all barriers to the activity and profitability of the multinational big enterprises on both sides of the Atlantic. As expected, the impact on SME’s in the EU countries will be tantamount to a tsunami. Instead of debating today about recovering the losses suffered by the people due to the crisis, a new and fiercer round of anti-social restructuring is being prepared.

Besides, this is precisely the reason why TTIP is being promoted with unprecedented non-transparent and undemocratic procedures. Privileged information was reserved for the lobby of industrialists and business giants. In contrast, trade unions, environmental movements and agencies for the protection of consumers have until today been kept in the dark.

AKEL has already tabled the issue to be debated in the House of Representatives and demanded the government clarify its position. As it became clear, the DISY- Anastasiades government – in this case  as well – is openly siding with the interests of the big business elite and aligning itself with the EU-US plans that want to change the world’s economic map and set back the peoples living standards on both and sides of the Atlantic.

The Cypriot people must know what is being prepared this time by the EU and US has no precedent. That’s why, we call on all political and social forces to take a stand. AKEL and the Group of the Left (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament will continue our actions, both inside and outside the EP, to inform the peoples of Europe about TTIP and organize their reaction and resistance to TTIP.