Proposition de résolution relative aux traités commerciaux européens, visant à y inclure des critères contraignants en matière de droits humains et de normes sociales et environnementales.
General information ¶
- Authors
- PS | SP Hugues Bayet, Malik Ben Achour, Mélissa Hanus, Christophe Lacroix
- Submission date
- Oct. 2, 2019
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Rejected
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- European Union trade agreement environmental standard social dumping social norm
Voting ¶
- Voted to adopt
- CD&V Open Vld N-VA LDD MR VB
- Voted to reject
- Groen Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP PVDA | PTB
Party dissidents ¶
- Simon Moutquin (Ecolo) voted to adopt.
- Sarah Schlitz (Ecolo) voted to adopt.
Contact form ¶
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Discussion ¶
June 11, 2020 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
President Patrick Dewael ⚙
The rapporteur, Mr De Maegd, refers to his written report.
Malik Ben Achour PS | SP ⚙
Mr. Speaker, we would like to review our text on the inclusion of binding criteria in human rights, social and environmental matters in trade treaties.
If we come back with this text, rejected in committee by nine votes against eight, it is for a very simple reason: between January 29 (date of voting in committee on Foreign Affairs) and today, there has been a crisis of an unprecedented magnitude since the Second World War. A crisis that has had its lot of questions, sometimes very deep questioning and reflections on a world that changes, the world to come, the world that we really want for ourselves as well as for our children.
These reflections are carried out at all levels in the public debate, but also at the heart of the institutions. They have also focused very massively on globalization as well as on the rules that organize trade between Europe and the rest of the world. The European Commission wants to legislate from 2021 and compel companies to respect human rights and the environment. There are sanctions in case of problems.
Similarly, the European Union’s relief plan and the Green Pact for Europe provide for a mechanism for carbon adjustment at the EU’s borders that will truly revolutionize trade.
Finally, France and the Netherlands both want to strengthen chapters on sustainable development in trade agreements. The Dutch Parliament recently voted a motion against the agreements with Mercosur, as the Austrian National Assembly did last year and as proposed in this text rejected by the commission.
The crisis has revealed our dependencies and weaknesses, ⁇ in the most strategic industrial sectors in times of crisis. It has also shown how much globalization has turned our economies into clay giants. We must be able to measure it. We must be able to measure how much we now need a system that does not subject our ⁇ to unfair competition, that does not organize the deindustrialization of our basins, that does not violently attack our social standards and jobs, that does not push our farmers into the abyss of uncertainty. We need a system that does not promote tax evasion, a system that does not contribute massively to climate change and that respects the planet.
Canada, Mercosur, Mexico: these agreements are all questionable and clear labels are needed as proposed by this text. It is, for example, unacceptable that the ISDS clauses contained in those treaties may continue to threaten measures taken by States to curb the epidemic or to support the economy. So it’s time to review the EU’s trade policy and review it in depth. And, in line with the commitments made in the Paris Agreements, in line also with the lessons learned from the crisis, we must relocate and protect industries and workers here in Europe, ⁇ in the strategic sectors of healthcare, food and even energy.
In order for the world of tomorrow to be more just, more sustainable, more local today, it is necessary, dear colleagues, that you agree to reconsider the situation by sending this text back to the committee for review in the light of the lessons we all learned from the crisis. I thank you.
President Patrick Dewael ⚙
No one can take the word anymore.
No other speaker is allowed to speak.
The vote on the proposal to reject this draft resolution will take place at a later date.
The vote on the proposal to reject this draft resolution will take place later.
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