Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 13 February 2019 - Strasbourg

9.3. EU-Singapore Investment Protection Agreement (A8-0054/2019 - David Martin)

Mündliche Erklärungen zur Abstimmung

  Jude Kirton-Darling (S&D). – Mr President, this Investment Protection Agreement between the EU and Singapore will benefit only those who have already benefited the most from globalisation. It will create new privileges for multinationals in 16 EU Member States and it fails to remove the privileges that already exist in the other 12. Because it provides special access to justice for foreign investors it directly attacks the fundamental principle that we should all be equal before the law, no matter how rich or poor we are, and there’s no economic argument to support it.

The Commission has never been able to demonstrate any link between the investment court system (ICS) and investment flows – because there isn’t one. Another way is possible. The argument that you need ICS to eradicate investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) arrangements is disingenuous, as the German Bilateral Investment Treaty shows. I fundamentally object to any kind of privileged justice for multinationals and I therefore voted against this agreement today.