European Commission gives in to pressures for increased transparency of TTIP texts
All 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEP) will have comprehensive access to all confidential documents relating to TTIP negotiations. The Parliament announced the agreement with the European Commission on December 2, 2015, after 11 months of negotiations. Under the operational arrangements, MEPs will be able to read the restricted “consolidated texts”—which reflect EU and U.S. compromises—in a secure reading room at the European Parliament, as well as take handwritten notes.
On December 4, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström announced that reading rooms would be established in the capitals of all 28 EU Member States to allow national members of Parliament (MPs) to analyze the consolidated texts. The announcement was made as the Commissioner spoke to the President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, addressing the requests he had made in 2015 for access to the documents by German MPs.
A week before the two announcements, The Guardian had obtained documents allegedly revealing that the Commission had given U.S. oil company ExxonMobil access to confidential EU strategies in TTIP negotiations. The Commission denied the allegations.
