Anti-fracking activists in Canada and in Europe are concerned that the new trade agreement between Canada and the European Union “will empower big oil and gas companies to challenge fracking bans and regulations.”
In a post on Monday (October 21) Brent Patterson, the Political Director of the citizens’ group Council of Canadians wrote that the “European Union’s Joint Research Centre says that shale gas drilling poses ‘high risks’ to the environment and human health. Bulgaria, France and northern Spain (in Cantabria) have banned fracking.”
He noted that Timothé Feodoroff of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute says, “CETA (the Canada-European Union trade agreement) will empower big oil and gas companies to challenge fracking bans and regulations (in Europe) through the back door. They would just need to have a subsidiary or an office in Canada.”
Patterson also quoted Pia Eberhardt of the Brussels-based Corporate Europe Observatory: “Members of the European Parliament should put the public interest ahead of investors’ and oppose the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism in CETA. It would pave the way for millions of Euros in compensation paid to big business by European taxpayers – for legislation in the public interest.”
In his Monday post Patterson underlines that a new directive on EU fracking was to come.
Meanwhile in Canada, a U.S. company, Lone Pine Resources Inc., has filed a $250-million damage suit triggered by a moratorium by the Canadian province of Quebec on fracking under Canada’s free trade agreement with the United States.
More information:
Council of Canadians – CETA raises fracking concerns in Europe – here
Euractiv.com – Draft EU-Canada trade treaty threatens Europe’s fracking bans – here
Transnational Institute – The right to say no: EU–Canada trade agreement threatens fracking bans (pdf) – here
Ottawa Citizen – Fracking suit [in Canada] shows perils of trade deals, critics say – here
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