1st May 2015

US government to open reading rooms for classified TTIP negotiating documents across EU

Responding to unceasing calls for more transparency in TTIP negotiations, the US government plans to open reading rooms on its embassies across the EU. Classified negotiation documents, especially documents with positions of both parties which are deemed the most sensitive, will be accessible in these rooms for national politicians to look at. Similar reading rooms are in Brussels, where MEPs and other high-ranking figures without direct access to negotiations can read these so-called consolidated versions. The existence of these reading rooms was considered goodwill gesture from the US, because originally only selected MEPs from the EP´s international trade committee had access to the documents. In the US, members of the Congress do have access to the documents, but every person entering the reading room is warned of possible prosecution in case of leakages. The EU itself routinely publishes its own negotiating positions.

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Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic