Press release from the European Coordination to Exit the EU, the Euro and NATO

The CETA (the treaty between Canada and the European Union) must not be ratified by the EU Member-States !

Let's rise up to compel our MPs to vote NO to CETA

It needs only one EU Member-State to vote against the CETA, to make null and void this treaty extremely harmful to our agricultures and cattle-raising farms, to our populations health, to our jobs, to the environment in terms of greenhouse gases production, to democracy.

Agriculture in danger
By increasing the Canadian quota for beef meat, the CETA impact will be sufficient to send the whole beef industry into an even more serious crisis. Scores of thousands of jobs will be destroyed in the industry (cattle-raisers, slaughterhouses, etc.) Of course, the consequences will be the same for the pork industry.

Increased risks for citizens' health
The products from Canada are not submitted to the same sanitary rules than the products coming from some European countries. Their consumption is a real danger for each and everyone's health.

Consequences on jobs
In general, opening borders results in increased unemployment for the workers employed in competing sectors, which compels them to accept lower wages or poorer working conditions.

The CETA degrades climate and increases greenhouse gas emissions
In France, an expert committee – called for and implemented by Emmanuel Macron – has just recognized that « climate is the great absentee from the treaty ». It asserts that the CETA impact on climate will be negative as far as greenhouse gas emissions are concerned. The oil extracted from oil sands is one of the dirtiest in the world. The extraction process is complicated and most polluting. During such process, methane, whose greenhouse effect is at least 20 times more powerful than CO2, and sulphur dioxide – the latter being responsible for lake and forest acidification – are released into air. The outcome is that extracting one oil barrel from the Alberta oil sands, produces at least three times more greenhouse gas than a conventional oil production process.

The CETA despises democracy
The democratic process is threatened by two new mechanisms implemented by the CETA. On the one hand, arbitration courts – which are a privatized justice questioning the States lawmaking abilities, and therefore questioning democracy (and sentencing States to pay huge indemnities to multinational firms). On the other hand, the various harmonization processes for standards, which will allow Canadian and European administrations in charge of trade, to influence health, industrial and environmental standards upstream the lawmaking process. Such tools will be available for big corporations to further their own interests and influence elected officials at the local, national and European levels.

Yes, we must to everything possible so that MPs and governments do not ratify such a treaty.

We call for MPs to vote NO massively !

To contact the Coordination : [email protected]