By M. Mitsea
The first day in the European Commission started with discussions over the topic of International Trade Committee about the TISA agreement and about free and fair trade which will result in economic growth and development. The TISA agreement has a very important role in order to achieve a liberalisation, always followed by security measures.
The European Commission has discussed subjects such as the environment, even though there weren’t many statements about how it is affected by the TISA agreement. In addition, all the commissioners agreed for a cyber security to be created in order to protect human rights; furthermore, the e-commerce and the financial services must respect personal data. Measures of procedure have been decided for the EU states as well as for the non EU states. For the latter, an independent authority which will monitor them will be needed; along with some conditions like transparency and respect to international treatments.
Exceptions from the TISA agreement have also been discussed in the European Commission. It was stated that there cannot be discrimination between public and private services; police, defense, justice, education, health treatment, electricity, water and cultural exceptions were mentioned. Despite the fact that the commission represents the EU as a whole, it was stated that every country can keep its public monopolies, so a state cannot be provided from another with services even if they are public or not.
Moreover, the commission wants TISA to have a more extrovert behaviour so as that there will be bigger interest from other states in the future. In addition, it was said that it has to urge the least developed countries to participate in the free international trade and TISA talks. An opportunity will be given to those countries to ameliorate their domestic capacity and to export services that developed countries need. Finally, technology will be exported and imported in order to reduce unemployment in poorer countries.
Even if the first day of European Commission session didn’t start according to plan, in the end of the day, with the recommendation ready, the commissioners have spoken about the agreement which was made. The commissioner Kourtelis said that he was satisfied with the result and that he hopes for expansion agreement with other countries and in the future accession of other states too. Also, the commissioner Petropoulou has stated to be content. The commissioner Savvidou said that specific regulations have been indicated and hopes that negotiations will go further. And last but not least, the commissioner of DROI, Papadomarkaki has pointed that she was not totally convinced about the protection and the leading framework however she stated to be optimistic.
