Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)

18.7.2016

Question for written answer E-005940-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
John Stuart Agnew (EFDD)

A US-proposed TiSA annex on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) suggests that an SOE must operate like a private business, using purely commercial considerations when it buys and sells services or when it buys goods if it is a services SOE. The SOE does not have to apply purely commercial considerations where it has a public mandate to deliver a service, but it still cannot give preferences to local services and suppliers.

This proposal, if incorporated into the final TiSA, would be a major constraint to the local operation of regional SOE branches and suggests a mandate to centralise procurement. This may not be in the interests of the region or indeed the branch.

Also the annex seeks to give power to foreign states to demand possibly operationally sensitive information from other sovereign states.

Can the Commission confirm that it will resist all attempts to impose such rules on EU Member States or provide justification for doing so?