1. Negotiations
2. EU-Canada (CETA)

European Commission seeks water services in CETA

rabble.ca | July 19, 2010

European Commission seeks water services in CETA

By Brent Patterson

The full and transparent disclosure of information is unacceptably absent with respect to how water is presently being negotiated in the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

We only know through a leaked version of an earlier CETA text and verbally from Canada’s negotiating team here in Brussels that the European Commission wants access to Canadian water and sanitation services.

The EU demand seeks coverage of, "All entities which provide or operate fixed networks intended to provide a service to the public in connection with the production, transport or distribution of drinking water, or supply drinking water to such networks."

We also know the EU’s initial market access request cites by name the Toronto water utility as an agency whose contracts it wants to ensure are open to European bidders.

How has the European Commission negotiated on water in previous free trade agreements? What can we learn from this?

In its March 2009 report ‘EU trade talks: a covert push for water privatisation?’, Brussels-based Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) writes that, "the EU appears in fact to be pushing for including water in trade agreements whenever possible."

The EU is interested in "the more politically controversial issue of drinking water distribution" but when it encounters opposition "the European Commission’s focus (then) seems to be primarily on other water services, such as sewage and wastewater treatment."

CEO warns that, "Including these other water services in FTAs is potentially dangerous. ...Opening up non-drinking water services to European water multinationals provides them with effective inroads into new markets, with the prospect of expanding into drinking water supply at a later stage."

(And as Food & Water Europe points out, the biggest European water companies Suez and Veolia "have come under scrutiny with accusations that include bribery of public officials, illegal political contributions, kickbacks, price fixing, operating cartels and fraudulent accounting.")

CEO writes that the European Union "is almost certainly pursuing market access for water services as part of (all) FTA talks. The Commission has not given up on including water in trade agreements, but prefers to be ambiguous in order to avoid political controversy."

"The Commission must put its cards on the table and make clear: what are the EU’s goals for the inclusion of essential services like water in FTAs? This is pre-condition for a fair debate about the implications of including water in international trade agreements."

The Council of Canadians will be working with the Members of the European Parliament we met last week to raise critical questions and resolutions about water and CETA in the European Parliament this fall. We know that the European Commission - which houses the European Commissioner for Trade and the Directorate-General for Trade - is accountable to the EP. And we know as issues are raised there (as they have been with the tar sands), they become "political matters" for Canadian trade negotiators to contend with during the talks.

We, of course, will also be demanding greater transparency and accountability from our own government and its CETA negotiators.

Our allies the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the National Union of Public and General Employees, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and the European Federation of Public Service Unions have also stated in their January 2010 report that "the negotiations are taking place outside of public scrutiny and there is need for greater transparency of the process."

The CEO report can be read at http://archive.corporateeurope.org/docs/covertpush.pdf.

Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians, www.canadians.org