Search Results for TTIP

Dear friends and supporters, As we shift into May, eyes are turning to  Brussels; the European Parliament elections will take place across EU member states from May 22-25, allowing Europeans to elect the 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) that will represent them for the next five years. Stay up-to-date through our EU elections page, with links to the most useful websites, an overview of scheduled debates, and updates from our correspondents across Europe.The fifth round of TTIP negotiations will also take place in May, along with the second day of planting on the 2000m² field; see below for more on both.Back in January, we featured a guest post from Feeding the 5000. They have just won the BBC Radio 4 Food Programme Best Initiative award. Well done guys! And, in case you missed them, here are a few highlights from the past month ARC2020.eu: FAO Voluntary Guidelines- hope for responsible land tenure policies: In Eastern Europe, the creation of international documents protecting land rights is more than welcome. Organic vs. conventional agriculture – where the profit? A recent study published by the European Commission […]

Dear friends and supporters, As Europe has thawed, the next months will be very exciting for our 2000m² project. Last Sunday, we planted seeds on the field in Berlin, and are looking forward to growing both the representation of the global situation, and the project itself.  More on that below. A few other highlights from March on ARC2020.eu: UK cooperative in fire sale of its farms: The UK’s food and farming sector is reeling with shock and disbelief as “Britain’s largest farmer”, The Cooperative, has put its farms up for sale. Ukraine’s Land Struggle with Russia: If 1 out of 3 agro-ecological zones would be removed from Ukraine’s possession, it would cause enormous consequences for farmers. Poland short-changes its organic farmers: Organic farming and agri-environmental schemes will not grow under current Rural Development plans. UN Rights to Food expert demands radical change: Olivier De Schutter warned that current food systems must be redesigned. The irony of national markets: cheap exports expensive imports: How our convoluted food system destroys food sovereignty. TTIP: how fat cats can turn nasty: Will the precautionary principle and other stalwarts […]

Dear friends and supporters, In March, the fourth round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will take place in Brussels.  Since the last round of negotiations in December, more evidence the secretive nature of these negotiations has emerged, as reported by Corporate Europe Observatory: “In the 29 documents which were ‘partially released’, DG Trade has removed large parts of the text (…). In some cases, like a meeting with lobbyists from Fertilizers Europe, every single word has been removed from the document.” A glimmer of hope was offered at the end of January, when the Commission announced a public consulation on the so-called investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) part of the agreement. According to the official press release, the decision follows ‘unprecedented interest in the talks’ and in early March, De Gucht will publish a proposed EU text for the investment part of the talks on which people across the EU will have three months to comment.  We featured an opinion piece on thethreats the TTIP poses to Romanian peasants and farmers, and a prognosis of TTIP stakeholder […]