European Commission Sued On EU-India Bilateral Trade Deal

Watchdog organisation Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) yesterday filed a complaint at the European General Court against the European Commission’s denial of access to information on the EU-India bilateral trade talks.

CEO announced on 15 February that after a protracted process (starting with a request by CEO in 2009) to get access to documents about meetings and information exchanges between the Commission and large business associations, including Business Europe, the lawsuit was “the last resort for access to information.”

At the core of the complaint are 17 documents withheld from CEO including letters from then Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to Business Europe and meeting reports of the so-called Market Access Advisory Committee (MAAC) and its working groups. The MAAC working groups, according to Business Europe, “bring together Commission officials, EU member state representatives and corporate lobbyists who discuss regulatory barriers in key markets, developing joint strategies to get rid of them.”

Pia Eberhardt from CEO said the complaint was mainly targeting the privileged access the EU Commission granted to big business while at the same time denying access of other interested stakeholders like trade unions and non-governmental organisations.

Press release and backgrounder are here.