Regulatory Cooperation in TTIP: A risk for democratic policy making?

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) have unleashed an unprecedented debate within the EU. This debate has mostly concentrated on three points of contention. First and foremost, critics of the agreement have focussed on the inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions. Second, opponents have lamented the lack of transparency shown in the process of negotiating the agreement, as well as the supposed unequal access of different societal groups both to information about as well as to the negotiators of the agreement. Third, adversaries have uttered the fear that TTIP might lead to the lowering of levels of social, environmental and health protection in the EU and to the sidelining of democratic decision-making over such regulations.

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