(corrects date)
The European Commission must get
"maximum support" in a "difficult negotiating phase" for the
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to enable
it to "reach the ambitious result which the European governments
rightly demand", Industry Minister Carlo Calenda stressed.
"The European Commission," he said, "is negotiating the
TTIP on the basis of a mandate unanimously conferred by the
Member States.
"It is up to the Commission to lead the negotiations.
"The Council, the European parliament and the national
parliamentary assemblies will be called, then, to approve the
outcome.
"In this difficult negotiating phase it is necessary to
assure the Commission of maximum support to enable it to reach
the ambitious result which the European governments rightly
demand. If, on the other hand, there is a desire to withdraw the
mandate and definitively interrupt the talks with the USA, one
must act in the ways envisaged by the treaties and in the
opportune fora".
Calenda said that "further weakening the European
institutions, which our governments have, rather, recently
committed themselves on various occasions to strengthening, via
a constant 'friendly fire' of statements for external use, is
counterproductive and contrary to the objectives which the
leaders confirmed on the TTIP at the June European Council.
"It would in any case be extremely difficult to find a
reason to justify the interruption of the talks with our main
economic and political partner after just two and a half years
of negotiation, when in order to seal a less ambitious accord
with Canada it took fully six years. And it is evident that if
that happened Europe would no longer have any credibility to
conduct any trade negotiation whatsoever".
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