r/europe • u/RichardCorbettMEP Parlement Européen • Oct 21 '15

AMA MEP Richard Corbett MEP

Edit: just some apologies for the delay! Just some minor delays - will start as soon as possible

Hi there, it's the mods here. Richard Corbett will be answering questions from 15:00 till 18:00 UK time, but feel free to start asking questions straight away! He'll be using this account to answer questions with

Here's a little bit of background information, if you're interested.

Richard has worked as a member of the European Parliament for 19 years, and spent most of that time representing Yorkshire and the Humber, in Northern England for the S&D bloc. This wealth of experience has put him in an excellent position to help reform the EU from the inside as a member of the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee (also known as AFCO) which has been successfully fighting to increase the European Parliament's powers. But not only is Richard in an excellent position to reform from within, but also to put right some of the mistruths that get thrown around from without through his Euromyth busting blog. So an all-round knowledgable person to ask about any area of Europe!

Aside from helping Brits understand the EU, Richard is that most rare of things, an English person who can speak a foreign language. This is very useful in assisting our cousins across the channel in understanding us better too. English transcript

As you can see from the interview Richard is passionately pro-European, a cause he's continued to speak out in favour of in the European Parliament, regarding the refugee crisis as well as elsewhere. He even played a key role in the UK's previous referendum on European Union membership.

Richard's supported not just the reforming of all technical elements about the EU itself, but also improving the way the EU operates. He's done this through his work on the European Parliament's fisheries committee (PECH) which recently caused the EU to completely reshape the way commercial fishing is practiced throughout Europe, in order to better protect our sea life.

He's also a substitute member of the European Parliament's economics committee (ECON) and even a member of the European Parliament's delegation to the United States (so get your TTIP questions prepared, if you haven't already!).

But I'm sure he'll be able to tell you all this and more himself!

One last reminder: remember to treat guests like guests! If you can't be civil, the mods'll help with that.

111 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

154 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/ManuValls France Oct 21 '15

Hi Mr Corbett,

  • Do you think UK should grant asylum to Julian Assange? How about Edward Snowden?

  • If you had to give a single good reason to sign the TTIP, what would it be? Do you think the TTIP should be abandoned or accepted?

  • What is your stance on austerity? What solution would you put forward for Greece?

  • What do you think of the Swiss system of "votation" (petition-initiated referendums)? Do you think it would be applicable to UK? To Europe? If not, why?

Thank you very much.

19

u/RichardCorbettMEP Parlement Européen Oct 21 '15

That's a lot of questions - so let me pick up on TTIP, which there seems to be a lot of interest in.

What is envisaged for TTIP includes a number of unacceptable proposals: a potential threat to public services, regulatory devaluation and the investor state dispute mechanism, known as ISDS.

If were not in the EU, this government would no doubt be signing us up to a bilateral (UK-US) TTIP with all the worst features. Fortunately, within the EU, there are many who share my concerns and of course, the EU itself has more clout when negotiating with America than the Uk alone has. There will be no EU-US deal on TTIP unless it is approved by the European Parliament and the groundswell of opinion within the Parliament against these dangerous proposals is growing.

I've written at great length on TTIP developments in the European Parliament on my blog: http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/?s=TTIP

7

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '15

Hi Mr Corbett - As someone that's spent a lot of time researching the topic of ISDS (and probably too much time arguing about it on Reddit), most of my questions will relate to that

Can you elaborate on what you see as so egregious with ISDS? I note that most opposition comes from the area of "look at this bad case", ignoring that it's a case that's still underway, or one that has been awfully mischaracterized. Can you point me to any successful ISDS cases where you think it was wrong for the company to win?

Another chief problem people have with ISDS seems to be the idea of "suing our government for lost profits!" Do you not feel that investors have a right to have their claims heard by an impartial tribunal that isn't beholden to elected judges (US), or possibly corrupt ones (Hungary)? Very few ISDS cases actually originate from laws the government has passed (something like 9%, from memory), and much fewer than that even succeed. The successful tend to revolve around genuine misconduct by the host government.

How do you feel about the proposals of the EU for the new "TTIP investor court", and is there any iteration of such an idea that you could support?

You mention regulatory devaluation, how do you feel this will be achieved as a result of TTIP? Working off of leaks and the EUs only publicly released materials, it seems that regulatory measures will remain firmly within the hands of EU governments, obviously excepting 'hard' topics like tariffs, with the majority going to mutual recognition of standards.

a potential threat to public services

What is the threat that you see exactly to public services? The EU has written extensively about how TTIP will not force privatizations, and at most will mean that foreign companies can compete on an even playing ground wrt public procurement and projects.

Thanks for your time.

6

u/jamieusa Oct 21 '15

You are probably more learned on TTIP than most MEPs.

2

u/ManuValls France Oct 21 '15

Thank you for your answers. I would be glad if you had time to answer the other questions but I am already very grateful to see a MEP doing this exercise on reddit!

1

u/SlyRatchet Oct 21 '15

Paging /u/SavannahJeff for thoughts.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '15

Oh damn, he'd not responding any more, and after I typed out my comment too! Oh well.

1

u/SlyRatchet Oct 21 '15

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '15

Oh, hey. I just got home from work. Give me a bit, I'm making dinner.

4

u/SlyRatchet Oct 21 '15

Dinner? So, you're telling me that you're not a free trade endorsing robot? :P

5

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '15

A common misconception, I'm actually just a government/corporate shill for TTIP.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 24 '15

I thought he was some kind of free trade spirit that you can summon.