Postbus 20018
Mr. K. de Gucht
European Commissioner for Trade
BE—1049 Brussels
Belgium
2500 EA Den Haag
Commissie Europese Zaken
R. W. Knops
Binnenhof 1a
2513 AA Den Haag
date 25 June 2014
Subject Letter in the framework of the political dialogue: the role of national parliaments in free
trade agreements
page 1/4
Dear Mr. De Gucht,
The national parliaments of the EU have been following with great interest the
negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA)
between the EU and Canada and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the EU. A recurring issue
between the European Commission and the Council when agreements have
been reached, is whether or not these types of comprehensive agreements
should be considered as coming within the exclusive competence of the
European Commission (so-called ‘EU-only’ agreements) or that that they
concern both competences of the Commission and of the member states
(mixed agreements).
The chairs of relevant committees in national parliaments who are signatories
to this letter believe that free trade agreements should be considered as
mixed agreements, since they contain provisions that concern policy areas
which are within the competences of the member states. For CETA, as well as
TTIP (as well as can be foreseen at this stage), this is the case for certain
elements of policy areas such as services, transport and investor protection. In
the case of a mixed status, all Member-States, namely through their national
Parliaments, have to ratify the agreement. In view of the important role
national parliaments have in the democratic decision making process of the
EU, we feel that it is of great importance that trade agreements such as CETA
and TTIP are ratified by the national parliaments.