Growing Skepticism towards Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership in Europe – Causes and Consequences
Growing Skepticism towards Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership in Europe – Causes and Consequences

Summary/Abstract: The goal of this article is to analyze the development of public support for the TTIP agreement in Europe and to identify the main factors causing the growing skepticism with the treaty. The first part of the article describes the state of TTIP negotiations since their beginning in 2013 until today, while the second part focuses on the analysis of the public support for the agreement using the Eurobarometer public opinion survey. The final part of the article analyses the TTIP debate in Germany – one of the most TTIP skeptic countries in Europe. In this part, we examine the key factors driving the public debate in Germany and study the positions towards TTIP in key stakeholders’ groups – general public, political parties and interest groups. The article shows that the cautious German disapproval of TTIP has evolved into a broad social opposition within a short period. Some of the stakeholders, who had initially voiced skepticism but supported the agreement in principal, have become outright opponents of the treaty. They do not see the possibility to improve some of the controversial provisions of the treaty during the negotiations process as real.

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