The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Brussels 22/06 - 27/06/2014

The THESEUS Summer School 2014 dealt with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union. The summer school took place from 22 to 27 June 2014 in Brussels and included a Simulation Exercise in which the participating students simulated European Council negotiations over the adoption of a mandate for EU free trade negotiations with the United States.

The keynote speeches and panel contributions during the first days of the summer school explored a broad range of political, economic, legal and societal challenges surrounding the free trade agreement. They ranged from the challenges for regulatory cooperation between the United States and the European Union to the implications of TTIP for possible future multilateral trade negotiations. Among the speakers were researchers Prof. Zaki Laidi (Sciences Po Paris), Jacques Pelkmans (College of Europe, Bruges) and Prof. Steffen Hindelang (Freie Universität Berlin) as well as practitioners from the European Commission and the European Parliament such as Luca di Carli (DG Trade, European Commission).

Robert Kissack (Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals) accompanied the THESEUS Summer School as this year’s Resident Researcher. All researchers and practitioners engaged in lively discussions with the participating students and responded to their critical questions on how TTIP would affect consumer protection, environmental standards and the regulatory sovereignty of the European Union.

During the following PROTEUS Simulation Exercise, the students engaged in intense negotiations over the adoption of a mandate for EU free trade negotiations with the United States. The preceding panels and keynote speeches served as inspirations for their talks, which ended in a success: After two days of heated discussions and bargaining, the students agreed on a comprehensive mandate to launch TTIP negotiations.

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