On October 14th the high profile public event that the Italian Presidency of the EU organized on the Transatlantic Partnership (TTIP) promoted a dialogue with the stakeholders and raised their awareness about the negotiations, by clarifying the benefits that can derive from a stronger integration of the EU and the US economy and by sharing thoughts on the future agreement (and on how to smooth up its negotiation process). It revealed that the business communities of both sides of the Atlantic are perhaps more advanced in their wish to economic integration than it is commonly perceived.
The audience has been composed of both experts of trade and non-specialists: members of the Italian Government, EU Trade Ministers, key political leaders and important members of the EU and Italian business community, influential members from civil society, MEPs of INTA Committee, high-ranking officials from other EU institutions, ambassadors from many countries, Italian and foreign journalists.
The Italian Prime minister Matteo Renzi opened the event. Deputy Minister Carlo Calenda introduced the working session as President-in-Office of the EU FAC-Trade Council. Some of the protagonists of EU and US business, such as Emma Marcegaglia (President of BusinessEurope), Giorgio Squinzi (President of Confindustria), and Peter Chase (Vice President for Europe of the US Chamber of Commerce) discussed the TTIP in the panel, together with academic Jeffrey J. Schott (senior fellow of Peterson Institute) and Bernadette Ségol (General secretary of ETUC).
The EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and the US Trade Representative Michael Froman explained the political progress we can reach in the TTIP talks and reply to questions collected in advance from representatives of civil society sitting in the audience and conveyed by the moderator Tobias Piller.
On October 15th the informal FAC Trade meeting of the 28 EU Ministers of Foreign Trade allowed to discuss on the forthcoming developments in the TTIP negotiations with the US, after the latest round of negotiations, the 7th one, held at the end of September in Washington. In the working session the ministers debated also the state of play of bilateral relationship with Russia and Ukraine, in the light of the rescheduling of the entering in force of the DCFTA, as well as the state of play of multilateral negotiations at WTO in Geneva, and in particular about trade facilitation agreement. Then the Italian Presidency presented the state of play of the pending legislative files about trade defence Instruments reform and international procurement instrument. Over lunch the ministers discussed the background document on future EU Trade Policy.
- Statement and slides of Deputy Minister Carlo Calenda during public event
- Directives for the negotiation on the TTIP
- Statement of informal trade meeting
- Video
Roma, 15 October 2014