Today was the Global Action Day to Defeat Free Trade and Investment Treaties. More than 1000 actions took place across the planet. Berlin’s largest event was a human chain from Potsdamer Platz to the Brandenburg Gate in which more than 4000 people participated.
There are a number of Free Trade and Investment Treaties brewing — CETA, TPP, TiSA and most prominently TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Merkel und Juncker have put concluding TTIP in 2015 on top of their agenda.
Negotiations between EU and US started in 2013 on condition that culture and media be excluded. Near the supposed end of the negotiations, it seems that the fears most of us had from the beginning come true and digital culture is coming back in the form of “audiovisual goods and services”.
Here some materials on this, alas mostly in German.
- The European Commission publicly presented its negotiating texts in January.
- They include a Factsheet on TTIP and culture
- The European Parliament is going to adopt a Resolution on TTIP, vote scheduled 18-21 May. EDRi has created a document pool on the TTIP Resolution.
- Durch die Hintertür: Betrifft TTIP die Medien?, Zapp, NDR, 04.02.2015
- TTIP bedroht die kulturelle Vielfalt, BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN, 20.02.2015
- The Greens have commissioned a study from Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Dederer, Universität Passau: TTIP und Kultur. Effektive Sicherung staatlicher Regulierung zum Schutz und zur Förderung kultureller Vielfalt im geplanten Freihandelsabkommen EU-USA. Rechtsgutachten im Auftrag der Bundestagsfraktion BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN, 9. Februar 2015
- Eine mit dem Otto Brenner Preis ausgezeichnete Zeit-Reportage zum Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS): Im Namen des Geldes, 10. März 2014
And finally some impressions from today’s action day in Berlin:
