Freya Baetens wins EU research tender on environmental protection within TTIP
The Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission has granted the project entitled “Initiating A Public Dialogue on Environment Protection in the Context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Negotiations” to a consortium led by The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and Ecorys, in collaboration with Prospex. Freya Baetens has been selected to serve as the legal expert on the project, assessing the legal impact of the TTIP on environmental policies.
The project aims primarily at contributing to the existing mechanisms for public and stakeholder dialogue on the TTIP, starting from the premise that the existing public debate, while based on legitimate concerns and clear public priorities, has not focused sufficiently on identifying solutions to, or safeguards against, the underlying risks which have generated concern.
In the first phase of the project, Freya Baetens will be analysing the TTIP’s influence on the EU’s and Member States’ regulatory space to formulate their own environmental policies. She will also be reviewing the possible legal repercussions of the investor-State dispute settlement provisions in the TTIP – both the standard ad hoc arbitration model and the new Investment Court System (ICS) proposal of the European Commission.
In the second phase of the project, she will address the legal interplay between the TTIP and a specific list of EU environmental policies and regulations that are crucial of some or all Member States. She will focus on four case studies: (1) GMOs and the precautionary principle; (2) CO2 emissions and transport; (3) the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation and chemicals; and (4) energy regulation and fracking. Finally, she will analyse the risks and opportunities for incorporating enhanced environmental protection in the TTIP.