The European Commission is seeking views from Europeans on the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) proposals in the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnerhip or TTIP. ISDS would give corporations the power to sue our governments if they thought a law hurt their profits -- this could be on anything from environmental rules, anti-smoking laws or rules on corporate taxes.
"Investor-state dispute settlement" is bad news. It's always better if you can put things in your own words, but here are a few of the problems with ISDS.
1. It bypasses national court systems, establishing special tribunals that only corporations can access.
2. It allows corporations to overturn democratically agreed rules and laws.
3. It makes democracy more remote from the people.
4. It could be a threat to our environment, public health laws, food standards rules, restrictions on hazardous chemicals and many other policy areas.
It's really easy to fil out the form. Just follow these simple steps:
Fill in your personal details, name, which country you live in (NB - You must be living in an EU member state)
Answer the question starting with"What is your overall assessment...". (We know it's written in hard-to-understand language. That's because it's taken directly from the Commission question itself and we don't want to give them any excuse to reject our submissions. Essentially it means 'What do you think about ISDS as proposed in TTIP").
The if you are happy for your views to be published just click "Submit my comment". If you aren't just untick the box.