12 July 2011 – Keith Taylor, Green MEP for South East England and a member of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, today hosted an event on tar sands at the European Parliament. He called on the European Commission to make sure that the trade agreement currently being negotiated with Canada does not threaten crucial EU climate policy, or boost Europe’s involvement in Canada’s destructive tar sands industry.
In his opening remarks as co-host of the event ‘Trading tar sands: How the Canada-EU free trade agreement will affect social and environmental policy in the EU and Canada’, Keith outlined several particularly worrying aspects of the CETA negotiations. He highlighted Canada’s request to include an investor-to-state dispute process, which would grant investors new legal rights to challenge perfectly legitimate public health policies, such as attempts to better regulate tar sands development for social or environmental reasons.
Keith called for the investor-to-state dispute mechanism, which could set a dangerous precedent, to be removed from the negotiating table. Keith also pointed to the need for the Fuel Quality Directive, to accurately reflect tar sands’ high greenhouse gas emissions.
Keith commented: “It is vital that within the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive, tar sands should be allocated a value that accurately reflects the greenhouse gas emissions that are emitted during production and use.
“At present, certain factions within the European Commission are hesitating to take this important step, due to the enormous pressure exerted on them by the Canadian government, as well as by supporters of the Canadian position, such as the UK government. This attempt by trade negotiating partners to undermine crucial EU climate policy is simply unacceptable and the Commission must stand firm.”
Kriton Arsenis MEP, co-host of the event and member of the Parliament’s committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety said: “The environmental and health impacts of tar sand extraction are huge. In addition to generating on average 3 to 5 times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil, their extraction causes severe air and water pollution, destroys livelihoods of indigenous communities, exerts pressure on Canada’s boreal forests and produces toxic waste.
“This is a chance to call upon Canada to change its current policy and comply with international agreements that we commonly sign, but Canada doesn’t always respect. It is unthinkable to consider that a country which provocatively violates a legally binding climate change agreement that we have jointly signed, could be a reliable partner in any other agreement.”
Speakers at the event included Jasmine Thomas, an indigenous woman fighting a proposed tar sands pipeline across her territory in British Columbia and Dr John O’Connor, a local doctor who first blew the whistle on the increased levels of cancers in communities living downstream from the tar sands. They were joined by the UK Tar Sands Network and Council of Canadians, as well as activists and NGO representatives based in Brussels.
Jess Worth, from the UK Tar Sands Network said: “The negotiations are in full swing, yet many European and Canadian citizens have never heard of them. Climate scientists have warned that further tar sands extraction could lock us into disastrous and unstoppable climate change, but Europe is sleepwalking into major involvement with the project. In the last few months we have seen extraordinary levels of lobbying from the Canadian government and oil companies, and threats that Canada will take legal action if the EU passes the Fuel Quality Directive, which would ban tar sands imports from Europe. This level of meddling is unacceptable.”
Stuart Trew, Trade Justice Campaigner for the Council of Canadians, said: “Beyond the incessant lobbying from the Canadian government, the trade deal on the table poses a direct threat to climate policy in the EU and Canada. Without a major re-write to exclude unnecessary investment rights, Europeans and Canadians must reject CETA.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. This week sees the start of the eighth round of EU-Canada free trade negotiations (CETA), which are due to be completed by the end of this year. This is the most ambitious free trade agreement either party has ever negotiated and threatens to completely undermine climate policy in Europe and give dramatic new powers to Europe’s multinational oil companies.
