The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) bothers us on the methodological plane and on the content plane. On 11 October 2014, a large number of organizations cooperated with European Pirates in actions across many countries against the TTIP

TTIP Methodology

We recognize that while more information has apparently  been made available, when compared to previous similar negotiations,  it is still largely insufficient.
This methodology collides with two issues that we consider central:

• Transparency
• Participation

Do we always have to counteract to such moves (ACTA, TTIP, TISA) or shall we try to change the rules of the game?

We want to augment transparency, that means not only to know what is going on, but  also to :

• Require lobbyist’s influence on political decisions to be revealed;
• Protect whistleblowers (e.g. Snowden/Datagate);
• Inspect, without the need for any specific justification, all contracts or financial benefits related to the delivery of public sector or government projects and services (Pirates believe that this is a fundamental right of citizens);
• To have comprehensive access to information and public hearings.

We also want to augment citizens’ participation in such decisions. Specifically:

• Better equilibrium between legislative and executive branches
• Referenda (whose mechanism should be simplified) for primary
  legislation of the EU (such as a treaty like TTIP)

Of course he public consultations on ISDS and copyright are a first positive step, even though their real outcome will need to be checked. There is progress but there is still plenty to do.

So in the end, we should not only contrast TTIP issue by issue. When TTIP fails we have to make sure another TTIP/TISA/ACTA cannot arise in the future! We must change the rules of the game!

You can read more about these topics on CEEP, the Common European Election Programme:

• Citizen participation and open government.
• Transparency;
• International trade policy.

TTIP Contents

There are probably many issues that you won’t like in TTIP (Investor-state dispute settlement comes to mind first), but here I’ll just focus on some of the core issues of the Pirate Party.

We are pursuing radical reforms on some points:

• Copyright;
• Free Software, Free Culture and Free Knowledge;
• Patents;

So, while on one hand we are worried that we could give up some of our standards and we want to protect our normatives, on the other hand there is an opposite problem: when we want to reform copyright, patents, free circulation of culture and knowledge, they cannot be crystallized into a treaty that would make them practically untouchable!

We don’t even need to know what is debated in TTIP negotiations. We want to reform these laws, we cannot accept that they get locked in a contract with a third party!

Tools

In order to work against TTIP you can send an email to your national MEPs about the TTIP explaining why they should not vote for it. You can also send messages about TTIP on your favorite social networks, to spread information over the net.

Moreover you can join the mailing list, set up by Pirate Party International, where you can discuss TTIP and inform other Pirates about events on this topic in your country.

About Michael Moroni

I was born in 1990, I live in Canegrate (MI), Italy and I study Mathematics in University of Milan. I’m a member of Pirate Party of Italy and Pirate Party of Milan. I’m a LGBT* right activist, I’m vegan and esperantist.

 

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The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) bothers us on the methodological plane and on the content plane. On 11 October 2014, a large number of organizations cooperated with European Pirates…