Prague, Sept 17 (CTK) – The Czech Pirate Party joined the German protests against the planned TTIP and CETA agreements on free trade with the USA and Canada on Saturday.
Ondrej Profant, head of the Pirate Party’s Prague branch, said the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) defend the interests of businesses and big corporations rather than citizens.
“It is no surprise that the negotiations are not transparent. But it is alarming that these deals have a chance to pass through the check of European politicians. The ignorance and passiveness of most people only plays into their hands,” Profant said.
This afternoon, only two dozen supporters of the Pirates watched an event symbolising the arrival of Uncle Sam in the country and the fight for the Czech “national” beer Budweiser on the embankment of the Vltava River in the centre of the city.
In Germany, tens of thousands of people took part in protests staged in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart and Leipzig on Saturday.
While the negotiations on the TTIP are still underway, Germany will vote on the ratification of CETA whose signing is planned within the EU-Canada summit this autumn. CETA would lower customs duty for most goods and give companies an opportunity to win public tenders organised in the other country. But over 125,000 Germans jointly filed a constitutional complaint against CETA.
The advocates of the TTIP and CETA claim that the deals will speed up economic growth. According to the Pirates and other opponents of the trade deals, they will have a negative impact on the European food standards, environment protection, public services and economy.
Pirate Party spokesman Mikulas Ferjencik said the TTIP would massively introduce problematic court arbitrations and supranational firm could sue countries whose legislation is not advantageous for it.
CETA includes unacceptable text about copyright, which was already part of the rejected Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) deal, Ferjencik said.
Moreover, the TTIP would undermine the right to privacy, he said.
The Pirates believe that the Czech state-controlled brewery Budvar would probably lose its long-lasting court dispute with Anheuser-Busch over the Budweiser brand if the trade deals were ratified.
Despite the protractions, both the European Commission and the White House said they want to successfully end the negotiations about the TTIP this year.
