The the citizens’ alliance “Stop TTIP” had organised the European-wide action day.  Alone over the weekend of 11/ 12 October, more than 200.000 people signed the unofficial ECI “Stop TTIP”. The citizen’s alliance had decided to do the ECI even though the European Commission had rejected the registration of the ECI in September 2014. Launched on 7 October, so far 750.000 signatures have been collected in total (as of 29 October 2014).

Main points of criticism

Mehr Demokratie Germany, a partner organisation of Democracy International, is amongst the leading organisations of “Stop TTIP”. The democracy organisation’s main argument against TTIP and CETA concerns the ‘Investor State Dispute Settlements’ (ISDS). Granting multi-national companies the right to sue governments for lost investments or revenue, people's sovereignty was underminded, the argument runs.

Also, “regulatory cooperation” would invite big businesses to influence draft laws in expert circles before these were discussed in parliament, another point the organisers see to water down standards of democracy and judicial law.

You can sign the self-organised European Citizens’ Initiative at www.stop-ttip.org

Here you find photos of the action day

Text by Cora Pfafferott