This call to action was written by several organisations involved in European campaign against TTIP and CETA, following the July 2015 civil society strategy meeting.
Download this call to action as PDF
TTIP could hit you sooner than you think
through a backdoor called „CETA“
A Call to Canadians and Europeans to Take Action against this pre-TTIP treaty
While TTIP will still be negotiated for a year or two, it could soon hit us via “CETA”. Now is the moment to stop it.
CETA is an agreement negotiated between the EU and Canada, it would be the first so called “new generation trade deal.” Concluded a year ago, on September 25 2014, the agreement has never been formally signed. The deal could be presented any moment to EU Member States for signatures: we must prevent our governments from signing it.
CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) has been negotiated for five years between two rich trade blocs, the EU and Canada. It targets standards and regulations as obstacles to trade and aims at lowering them and stalling future progress. If public interest decisions affect their profits, US companies could already sue European Member States for millions of dollars through their Canadian subsidiaries, as CETA would be the first EU treaty containing a so called “Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) arbitration mechanism. This means that all efforts and debates surrounding ISDS in TTIP would have been in vain if CETA is allowed to go through. And ISDS is just one of the many dodgy mechanisms in CETA that would set a dangerous precedent to TTIP (others include risks of downwards harmonisation of standards and democratic freeze trough regulatory cooperation and negative lists deregulation), thereby setting a dangerous precedent to TTIP. (See this new short briefing paper to know more about the content of CETA)
Based on available information, it is possible that CETA could be signed by each of the 28 European governments before the end of 2015 to be then approved by the Council and by the European Parliament as early as spring 2016. Once approved by the Parliament CETA could be already ‘provisionally implemented’; this although it hasn’t been voted on by Member States’ parliaments. That’s why we cannot wait to act until CETA’s national ratification stage, we must stop it now!
Let’s increase public knowledge and political pressure against CETA:
Last year during an EU-Canada summit on 25-26 September CETA negotiations were declared concluded and the 1600 pages of text were published. One year on, on 25 September 2015, we want to dedicate the day to CETA and launch our efforts to stop it!
Let your government know that you know about CETA
1 – Sign an open letter and send it to your national and European policymakers on 25 September.. Feel free to translate and adapt it. You can send it to your national, regional and EU members of Parliament(s) and to your Government(s) together with your allies in your country. You have until 18 September to sign it, by filling this form.
2 – Publish a press release and tweet/ blog and facebook about CETA
Share your letter with citizens and the media by imbedding it into a press release. Consider tweeting policymakers to ask them if they will act to stop CETA and encourage your social media communities to also send the open letter as well as share it onwards. Consider tweeting policymakers to ask them if they will act to stop CETA and encourage your social media communities to also send the open letter as well as share it onwards, e.g. using an image like this (you can find an editable version of it here and translate it or adapt it).
3 – Take part in the the international days of action “Trade 4 people” from 10 to 17 October, with the message “To stop TTIP, let’s stop CETA”. Several movements are already planning mobilisations to stop TTIP and CETA on that week. Please join in, organise a local mobilization and think of creating actions, banners and messages related to CETA and/or CETA and TTIP! You can also do a smaller symbolic action on the 25 September to build up for the October actions. Examples of actions planned and material are available on www.trade4people.org
The more people know about CETA, the less they will accept it!
Further tools that you may find useful :
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A short video explaining clearly how CETA could affect all of us. It is available in English and German for now. If you would like to translate it into your own language(s), you can add subtitles to it yourself or contact Campact who had this video produced, to see how a full translation of the video is possible.
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A list of existing campaign tools and analysis papers on CETA. Don’t hesitate to translate/adapt those tools and add links to your version in the open list. On that page you can also find a list of speakers to invite to a CETA focused conference/ debate / action or info event, and identify additional needs you may identify in terms of analysis and campaigning tools ;
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Join the week of activities on investment and CETA, November 9 to 14 in Brussels. More information to come ;
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Ask your local authority declare itself “TTIP and CETA free”? If it’s already TTIP free, ask for a “CETA free” local motion to be voted as well. You can find here a map of the existing TTIP/CETA free territories in Europe and tools to help you start this process. It is a really useful local mobilization tool, to raise awareness amongst citizens, local politicians and inside political parties and governments.
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Last but no least when writing, communicating or talking about ‘stop TTIP’ please include ‘and CETA’!