Millions Voice Opposition to 'Corporate Power Grab' Trade Deals
October 7, 2020 | News | No Comments
Organizers of a citizens’ initiative on Wednesday delivered a petition with over three million signatures to the European Commission headquarters in Brussels in their continuing bid to stop trade deals they say pose a threat to democracy and boon to corporate interests.
They say the number of signatures—over 3.2 million at the time of publication—is proof of the vast public opposition to the trade deals in question: the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and United States.
“By signing this petition, an unprecedented three million people from countries across Europe have made it clear that they reject these dangerous Trojan horse treaties which benefit big corporations at the expense of people,” stated Magda Stoczkiewicz, director of Friends of the Earth Europe.
Their petition, which has the support of over 500 European organizations, states:
As the London-based Global Justice Now explains in a media statement, the petition
“Three million people demanding an end to the TTIP negotiations shows that the EU does not have the public mandate to continue this deal,” the organization’s director, Nick Dearden, adds. “People across Europe are standing up to protect our labour rights, our environmental standards and vital public services, like the [National Health Service], from TTIP. Everything that we know about this secretive trade deal shows that it is very little about trade and very much about enshrining a massive corporate power grab.”