Reinhard Bütikofer, Co-Chair of the European Green Party, responds to the proposal of the European Commission to consider the CETA trade agreement a mixed agreement. Therefore it should have the ratification of the national parliaments:
“Today, in an about-face, the European Commission decided to finally allow national parliaments to play the role they have to play in the ratification process of the CETA trade agreement negotiated between the EU and Canada. The European Green Party welcomes this reversal of course, that constitutes a major victory for civil society.
Greens, trade critics and all groups have worked very hard to defend democratic rules of decision making. In the wake of the Brexit decision in the UK, many of us have wondered how President Juncker and the European Commission could possibly be so tone-deaf as to ignore the public demands for a fully-fledged inclusive decision making process. They finally seem to have heard the shout. Welcome to the club President Juncker and the same rules will of course apply to TTIP once we get there.
This may not be a very good day for some corporate lobby groups that might have preferred a shortcut, but it is good news for European democracy.”
