Citizens to present more than 3 million signatures against TTIP and CETA to the European Commission
Brussels 06/10/2015
Citizens to present more than 3 million signatures against TTIP and CETA to the European Commission
A European Citizen's Initiative against the TTIP and CETA trade agreements will be handed over to the European Commission in Brussels on Wednesday morning at 10.00am.
The initiative has collected more than 3 million signatures from citizens across Europe with the aim to stop the TTIP and CETA agreements.
Trade policy expert of the left GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament, MEP Helmut Scholz, expresses the group's support for the initiative: “It is extremely significant that European civil society has developed such an outstanding initiative that has gained the support of more than 3 million people.”
“The people have expressed that they clearly do not want TTIP or CETA. I urge the European Commission to fully respect the will expressed by a record number of Europeans in this initiative that was truly created by European citizens.”
The initiative calls on the institutions of the European Union and its member states to stop negotiations with the United States on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and not to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada.
The initiative has been open for signature for a period of one year and has collected more than three times as many signatures than required for an European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) to be successful according to EU rules (and more signatures than any other ECI to date).
The signatures will be handed over symbolically by citizens who organised the initiative at the European Commission's Berlaymont building in Brussels at 10.00am.
As part of the symbolic action, citizens from around Europe will place many kilos of printed signatures collected by the initiative onto a giant scale until these 'citizens' voices' outweigh the 'corporate interests', which will be represented through sand bags placed on the opposite side of the scale. This action will be conducted under the slogan 'Let's TTIP the scales'.
GUE/NGL Press Contact:
Nikki Sullings +32 22 83 27 60 / +32 483 03 55 75
European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group
More information about the European Citizens' Initiative: https://stop-ttip.org/
Photos will be available from around 12.00pm at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eci_ttip/
An action video will also be available from Wednesday October 8, 2015 at: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecittip