Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the EU, has come out against ISDS (investor-to-state dispute settlement), a section of the current American-EU TAFTA/TTIP free trade negotiation. The ISDS gives priority to the interests of corporations over the laws of every nation signing the multi-national agreement. His statement is as follows:

As Commission President, I will also be very clear that I will not sacrifice Europe’s safety, health, social and data protection standards or our cultural diversity on the altar of free trade. Notably, the safety of the food we eat and the protection of Europeans’ personal data will be non-negotiable for me as Commission President. Nor will I accept that the jurisdiction of courts in the EU Member States is limited by special regimes for investor disputes. The rule of law and the principle of equality before the law must also apply in this context.

Given this resistance to corporate sovereignty at the highest levels of the European Commission and also key groups in the European Parliament, it’s hard to see how the issue of corporate sovereignty in disputes can survive. Once TAFTA/TTIP is agreed, the European Parliament will have a yes/no vote, and will be unable to modify it. That means the only way to block ISDS is to reject the whole deal.

And rejected it should be. It sets corporations legally above sovereign states. How, in the name of common sense, can anyone even suggest such a thing? It is anti-democratic, and, by the way, anti-Epicurean. It is driven by corporate lobby money and politicians happy to take orders from CEOs and billionaires in order to secure their jobs.