France called on Monday for the European Commission to make public its mandate to negotiate EU-U.S. free-trade talks, citing what it said was an atmosphere of mistrust over efforts to forge a landmark pact.
The U.S. and EU launched the negotiations earlier this month despite European concerns about U.S. spying that had threatened to delay the start after nearly two years of preparation. France moreover only agreed to the talks after securing assurances that its entertainment industry would be ring fenced.
"The first week of discussions on a transatlantic partnership agreement closed in a climate of doubt," Trade Minister Nicole Bricq wrote in French newspaper Liberation.
"The U.S. once again showed its splendid ambivalence. It is a country where everything seems possible and whose dynamism and energy we French envy. At the same time it is a prickly power incapable of resisting the temptations its supremacy gives it."
Stressing the need for transparency in the talks, Bricq said she had asked EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht to break with usual procedure and make the EU's negotiation mandate public.
"It doesn't contain any secrets. It's a political statement that calls for an agreement that respects our values and interests. It deserves to be debated," she said.
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The Commission said it would gladly publish the mandate, but noted any such decision could only be taken by the EU Council - the body composed of the EU's 28 member states.
Note EU-Digest: Transparency is the name of the game especially given the stakes which are at hand and the reputation of the US as a "steamrolling super power".
Read more: France wants mandate for EU-US trade talks published | Reuters
The U.S. and EU launched the negotiations earlier this month despite European concerns about U.S. spying that had threatened to delay the start after nearly two years of preparation. France moreover only agreed to the talks after securing assurances that its entertainment industry would be ring fenced.
"The first week of discussions on a transatlantic partnership agreement closed in a climate of doubt," Trade Minister Nicole Bricq wrote in French newspaper Liberation.
"The U.S. once again showed its splendid ambivalence. It is a country where everything seems possible and whose dynamism and energy we French envy. At the same time it is a prickly power incapable of resisting the temptations its supremacy gives it."
Stressing the need for transparency in the talks, Bricq said she had asked EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht to break with usual procedure and make the EU's negotiation mandate public.
"It doesn't contain any secrets. It's a political statement that calls for an agreement that respects our values and interests. It deserves to be debated," she said.
]
The Commission said it would gladly publish the mandate, but noted any such decision could only be taken by the EU Council - the body composed of the EU's 28 member states.
Note EU-Digest: Transparency is the name of the game especially given the stakes which are at hand and the reputation of the US as a "steamrolling super power".
Read more: France wants mandate for EU-US trade talks published | Reuters
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