One might be forgiven for questioning the Coalition’s commitment to fundamental rights.   It  wants to scrap the Human Rights Act, and has passed legislation that erodes the right for campaigning organisations to speak out freely in the run-up to an election.   But fear not, today it will be championing new protections for a highly victimised, powerless, vulnerable group, with no powers to defend itself.   I refer, of course, to multinational corporations.

When the Prime Minister announced the start of negotiations on an EU-US  Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) last year, he declared: "This is a once-in-a-generation prize and we are determined to seize it.”  So were corporations, who could be endowed with a range of  “investment protection provisions”.   

It’s the planned inclusion of an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism  that has rightly drawn the most intense criticism.  On paper, it’s intended to “clarify and improve investment protection rules” but in reality it gives big business licence to sue democratically elected governments whenever they perceive their “rights” to have been violated.  Such claims would be considered not by the sovereign courts of those countries, but by a panel of judges, many of them corporate lawyers, deliberating behind closed doors, with the power to overthrow decisions made by democratically elected parliaments, and under no obligation to consider the rights of citizens. 

As the fantastic Brighton and Hove World Development Group has pointed out, “nobody has consulted us on whether we want our sovereignty signed away to corporations.”  They  nicely illustrated the point by taking a tug-of-war to the streets of Brighton and asking people to take part to decide who ought to win – big business or citizens’ rights.

Last year I tabled an Early Day Motion calling for talks to be frozen immediately.  The EU has now  launched a three-month public consultation on some of the proposals – a small but positive sign that they’re listening to campaigners.  Today I’ll be taking another opportunity to oppose TTIP, when it’s debated in Parliament.

In two excellent articles on the subject, George Monbiot has catalogued what ISDSs have meant in practice elsewhere.  American lawyers successfully challenging Canadian plans for regulations on pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and patent law.  A Swedish energy company bringing a claim against the German Government’s decision to phase out nuclear.  Philip Morris suing the Australian Government over plain cigarette packaging.   So here at home, we shouldn’t be surprised if TTIP meant challenges from private healthcare companies to policy decisions aiming for a publicly provided NHS, or from the energy companies on government attempts to freeze fuel prices.

The EU assures us that it is merely trying to find “a better balance between the right of states to regulate, and the need to protect investors.”  Yes – rights are being rebalanced.  They’re being rebalanced in favour of powerful, unaccountable, corporations, and  against democratically elected governments, and the citizens who rely on them for protection.  If it goes ahead, TTIP could overturn decades of laws and regulations formed through democratic processes on both sides of the Atlantic.    In the face of a Government that is unduly protective of the rights of powerful corporations, it’s time to stand up for our rights as citizens.