EU court rules in favour of Commission over India-EU FTA

Ruling comes following an appeal by Corporate Europe Observatory against the judgment of the General Court on the case

A European Union court on Thursday ruled in favour of the European Commission (EC) in a long-pending litigation against it over access to information on the proposed India-EU free trade agreement (FTA).

The litigation was filed in February 2011 by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) over the limited access to the negotiating texts concerning the ongoing talks to conclude the FTA — or the India-EU broadbased Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement, as it is called officially. CEO is a Brussels-based research and campaign group that advocates and promotes transparency in European businesses. “It’s a sad day for citizens when the European Court of Justice effectively sanctions the Commission’s secretive collaboration with, and for, a tiny elite of corporate lobby groups. Particularly baffling is that this ruling comes in the context of growing public pressure against the current direction of EU trade policy,” CEO trade campaigner Pia Eberhardt said. Eberhardt had been spearheading the campaign for four years, after the EC refused to divulge any information on the ongoing talks.

CEO alleged the commission shared the documents concerned with European industry lobby groups such as BusinessEurope. EC had then informed CEO that the documents were highly “confidential” and “sensitive” and cannot be shared. In June 2013, CEO dragged the EC to the General Court of the EU for favouring lobby groups.

Thursday’s ruling comes after CEO filed an appeal in the Court of Justice of the European Union against a judgment of the General Court on the case.

CEO said such a practice of making the documents accessible only to a selected few by EC would “not only hampers well-informed and meaningful public participation in EU trade policy-making, but also leads to a trade policy that, while catering for big business needs, is harmful to people and the environment in the EU and beyond.”

Talks for concluding the India-EU BTIA started in 2007 and 15 rounds of negotiations have been held. The Narendra Modi-led government has not held any talks with the EU on the FTA, though the issue was discussed informally.

According to officials in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the BJP government might initiate negotiations in June. India now seemed ready to relent from its earlier position of taking massive cuts in the duties on automobiles and wines and spirits. But, in the bargain, India has demanded EU grant it “data secure nation” status.