Campaigners from across Britain tell the EU Commission: We don’t want TTIP
Date: 4 February 2015
Over three hundred people today took part in a demonstration in Brussels calling for an end to the ‘Trojan Horse Treaty’ US-EU trade deal, while negotiators from both sides of the Atlantic met behind closed doors to hammer out details of the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Organised by Friends of the Earth Europe and Global Justice Now, the protest featured an 8 metre high Trojan Horse and included people from across the UK and from different walks of life who travelled together to protest against the negotiations and lobby their MEPs.
The TTIP protest took place as European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker finished a meeting with Greece’s new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. A Syriza minister earlier in the week said that Greece “will never ratify” the deal and that scrapping TTIP would be “a big gift… to all the European people.”
Guy Taylor, the trade campaigner for Global Justice Now said:
“Large numbers of people from across the UK have come to Brussels today to make their voices heard in opposing the massive corporate power grab that is TTIP. Presumably the newly elected Greek prime minister has reiterated Syriza’s position against the trade deal to the president of the European Commission this morning. Apart from the huge amount of lobbying from business elites, support for this trade deal seems is crumbling.”
The protest happened on the same day that Friends of the Earth Europe published new analysis showing that that the EU proposals would reduce the possibility of restricting genetically modified foods and the use of hormones and other chemicals in factory-farmed animals by establishing a new transatlantic body to filter all future food safety and animal welfare rules – aiming to facilitate trade “to the greatest extent possible”.
Adrian Bebb, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said:
“This trade agreement is a Trojan Horse that will threaten our food safety and environment. Trade officials whose primary objective is to increase trade and boost corporate profits will have first say over future food safety rules. A trade agreement is not the place to decide about our food safety.”
Earlier in the morning, about 60 people who had travelled from the UK to Brussels took part in a spontaneous protest outside the European Management Centre where the protests were bring held.
Join the more than 1 million people who’ve already said no to TTIP
Photo: Jess Hurd
