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President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker travelled to Paris to speak to a convention of French mayors on Wednesday in efforts to drum up support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) ahead of the next European Council summit.
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"President Juncker feels that the time has come to ask heads of state and governments of the European Union to have a new discussion on where we are and where we want to get with these negotiations," spokesperson Daniel Rosario said.
EU representatives and Washington are aiming to conclude talks on TTIP by the end of this year.
The call for member states to pledge their support for TTIP comes as the Corporate Europe Observatory issued a new report on Wednesday criticizing Juncker for promoting policies that would grant U.S. corporations the ability to undermine EU sovereignty.
“It [TTIP] will increase the influence of the U.S. trade authorities in EU politics, and it will strengthen the hand of U.S. corporations, often working in tandem with their European counterparts,” the report reads.
The report goes on to cite Jean-Claude Juncker as leading the way in pushing for greater corporate deregulation, which the new research argues “is at the heart of TTIP.”
“Under Juncker, fundamental changes in policy-making are being introduced which will put major obstacles in the way of new regulations aimed at protecting the environment or improving social conditions,” The Europe Corporate Observatory concluded in it's new policy paper.
Meanwhile, during a Stockholm speech on Tuesday as part of a European tour to advocate for the TTIP, Michael Froman, U.S. President Barack Obama’s trade tsar, warned that there was no “Plan B” if talks were not concluded this year.
European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström also reiterated her plan to finalize the EU’s trade agreement with the U.S. this year, but also said it doesn’t mean the talks have failed if that deadline can’t be met.
Concern has been raised among EU leaders and their trade ministers about whether a deal can or should be reached.
French President François Hollande earlier this month said that his country would say “No” to TTIP at the negotiations’ current level of outcome, and German Economic and Trade Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Sunday said his Social Democratic Party doesn’t “wish to be part of a bad deal.”
Gabriel recently criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel in a newspaper interview over her enthusiasm to conclude TTIP this year.
“To put it mildly, there are a lot of mixed signals out of Europe in recent weeks and we are trying to sort through them,” a senior U.S. official told the Financial Times.
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