The negotiations on the transatlantic free trade agreement TTIP need to be transparent and include stakeholders. This was confirmed by the participants of a panel debate that was organised by Bertelsmann Stiftung's Brussels office. The event, "The TTIP Project: Economic Possibilities, Political Realities and Public Perception", brought together more than 200 people to hear the wide-ranging views of European Commission chief TTIP negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero, European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC) Director General Monique Goyens, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) External Relations Coordinator Tom Jenkins and Visiting Fellow Suparna Karmakar of the European think tank Bruegel.
Following a welcome by Brussels office Executive Director Thomas Fischer, Bertelsmann Stiftung Chairman and CEO Aart De Geus, in an opening address, noted that transparency and inclusion of all stakeholders in negotiations is required if any TTIP agreement is to be truly successful and mutually beneficial to the EU and the US. "What is clear to me and what cannot be stressed enough is the need for the greatest possible transparency.... Backroom politics without open and constructive debate no longer works," he said.
The results of recent Bertelsmann Stiftung studies on TTIP were then presented by the organization's experts in the German headquarters and its Washington, DC office. Global Economic Dynamics Project Manager Ulrich Schoof and Transatlantic Relations Director Tyson Barker summarized their findings of the effects of a comprehensive TTIP on, respectively, Europe and the US.
Bertelsmann Foundation North America Executive Director Annette Heuser moderated a debate among the panelists that focused on appropriate levels of transparency and inclusion in the TTIP negotiations.