EU Trade Commissioner Announces Reading Rooms For TTIP Text In EU Capitals

European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem, speaking to the President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, announced reading rooms for the consolidated texts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in all capitals of the EU member states.

The EU trade commissioner in doing this answered firm requests Lammert had made last year with regard to access for the members of the German Parliament. So far only members of the Government have access to reading rooms in the US embassy.

Lammert had warned that the German Parliament would be unable to sign if it had no possibility to check the evolving texts of the mega-regional agreement of the EU and the US.

Details on the reading room for the members of Parliament are still to be finalised, according to a press release from the Commission. Earlier reports [corrected] questioned that the US side had agreed to the plan, referring to undisclosed sources in the US administration.The German side expressed confidence that an agreement and on details could be reached as early as January.

For Berlin, the Ministry of of Economy looks like the place of choice for the reading rooms. What is unclear is how fast all 28 member states can prepare for the access which is expected to adhere to rules to keep the documents highly confidential, a request the US had, according to a source in the German capital.

One of the issues discussed about access is the question of whether members of Parliament can send their staff and if restrictions of the reading room in Brussels where MEPs can only make handwritten notes will also be forced on the members of national Parliaments.

Just earlier this week, the Commission had announced that also all Members of the European Parliament, and not only a small group, would be given access. Malmstroem called TTIP now the most transparent trade agreement ever negotiated by the EU.