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A VIDEO BY Irish MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan criticising the secretive process of viewing classified documents relating to a massive US-EU trade deal has been viewed nearly 70,000 times online.
In the video – entitled ‘TTIP reading room farce’ – Flanagan says he is banned from transcribing notes verbatim from texts relating to the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations.
On his Twitter and Facebook pages yesterday, Flanagan said staff in the European Parliament told him to remove his video. He said he won’t be complying with the request.
“The reason given (for removing the video) is that no permission for filming was received from the parliament,” Flanagan told TheJournal.ie.
An assistant of MEP Bernd Lange appears in the video, and Lange wants her name removed, the MEP claimed.
“It’s important to note that all assistants are already openly identified on the EP website,” Flanagan added.
The real problem Mr Lange has is that as a ‘socialist and democrat’ his “great achievement” in creating this reading room has been exposed as a farce. The truth hurts.
The video has been shared over 4,000 times online and viewed over 69,000 times. We have edited the video to protect the assistant’s privacy.
Critical
Flanagan has been vocal in criticising what he calls the lack of transparency around talks to forge a so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a series of trade negotiations which are being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and the US.
Both Washington and Brussels want the mega-deal completed this year before US President Barack Obama leaves office. However, the agreement-in-the-making has faced mounting opposition on both sides of the Atlantic.
Earlier this week, Greenpeace published 284 pages of classified documents online to “shine a light” on the secret talks, which would be the world’s largest bilateral trade and investment agreement.
Greenpeace said the papers show, for example, that the US wants to be able to scrap existing EU rules in areas such as food labelling or approval of dangerous chemicals if they spell barriers to free trade.
Flanagan’s video shows him directly before and after paying a visit to the European Parliament TTIP reading room, where he said he read documents which have already been agreed upon by the EU and the US.
He said he wasn’t allowed bring in any electronic devices to record the documents and afterwards demonstrated how he had to sign a solemn declaration that he will not write down what is in the documents word for word.
“If I write down the documents verbatim and then I make their contents known verbatim, I will potentially prevent any MEP from seeing these documents again,” he said.
As an MEP, I’m being asked to do a dodgy job of transcribing this. I’ve also been told I can tell it in my own words. Well if I choose that my own words be identical to the words on these [documents], I’ll have broken some law.
Welcome to the European Union.
Comment has been sought from the European Parliament in relation to their request to take down the video but was not forthcoming at time of publication.
European Parliament rules outline that breaches of protocol can lead to a ban on the person filming or using camera equipment in the parliament for up to two years.
Additional reporting – Michelle Hennessy
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Ah… Does Europe not want people knowing about ttip…..
Not until after the stooges in the parliament vote it through. Then they’ll claim you were informed and that the process was fully transparent.
anyone paying attention knows about TTIP.
A petition was signed by over 3 million Europeans by end of last year.
For anyone who thinks locking it in a room and banning notes is no big deal, consider two things. First, in 2002 the national intelligence estimate on Iraq was handled this way, so most decided not to read it, if they had they’d have noticed all the things the Prez and VP etc were citing as slam dunk smoking guns had MASSIVE caveats from NSA, DIA, CIA attached , might have made them vote down the war resolution if they’d know how flimsy the case was. Second, the recent Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture & kidnapping. A redacted simplified summary of key findings was released, you could read the classified full thing, with the real gorey stuff, in similar circumstances to Iraq/this trade deal. Glenn Greenwald checked how often it had been read, months after publication it had not even been taken out of its plastic, no member of Congress had read it.
Problem been that 3 million isn’t all that great on a European level. Far far far more people should be complaining. It’s a crazy document that damages so much of what it is Europe has achieved!
3 million is less than 1% of the population of the EU
Good man Ming.. keep sticking it to them.. it’s good that this is finally getting the media attention it should have gotten from the beginning
Fair play to Ming!
DOWN WITH THE UNION!!!!
Let’s follow the brits out of this rich man’s club. what has Europe ever done for us? they are worse than the Romans
Unelected bureaucrats in Europe dictating to our MEP’s as to what they can read and tell us about. Why are we not shouting about this? Why are most of our media not reporting on this? We have a right to know what is being done in our name and my understanding is that FG have already agreed to it – Not in my name.
Journal.ie do your Fact Check on this and tell us the real truth of what is going on
“Unelected bureaucrats in Europe dictating to our MEP’s as to what they can read and tell us about. ”
Eah, no. It is an MEP, Bernd Lange, mentioned in the article, who is doing it.
Phil, MEP’s are elected. The European Commission is not. Bernd Lange is an enforcer but who do you think makes the rules?
Phil has a serious dose of tumbleweed
Fair play ming. Genuine hero with balls. Ttip pure evil. Make copies folks
I hate to say it but if Trump gets into the white house TTIP and the north Atlantic version will probably all be scrapped
TTIP is an attack on the democratic process. Greedy business doing deals with our lives behind closed doors.
“It’s a club, people and we ain’t in it” – George Carlin
TTIP just formalises the rights of corporations above the rights of people. It’s a race to the bottom.
https://trickstersworld.com/2016/04/26/the-ttiping-point/
@ Bobby Moore, that’s funny Bobby, I just posted a link to that video yesterday on another journal article. For those who have never seen it , take a look, quite relevant! https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1295237283824139&id=507253029289239
Fair play to him. The real power of independents is that they don’t blindly follow party dictats.
go on the ming
Yeah its great to see the boat being rocked…some non-conformity…in the country of conformity.
People should follow Ming on social media if they want to find out more about this deal. He has constantly posted information about it over the last year or more, yet, you barely ever see it mentioned in any Irish media outlets.
What’s hogan doing about it ? Apart from pocketing the envelopes I mean
It’s funny. The Irish times, the so called paper of record, last year went to town on ming and his attendance record in the European Parliament at a time his wife was ill. It was an ill-informed, vindictive piece of journalism worthy of the independent and other tabloids. Since then ming has had the best attendance in the Parliament and has done Ireland (and europe) a huge service by continually bringing this matter up. Where is the times report on that? Fg have pushed vehemently to have this trade agreement brought in – it is a horrible piece of work that only benefits big corporations and the USA. But that’s fine Gael all over. Well done ming!
Could we even imagine a FF’er or a FG’er or a Liebour acolyte doing this…dont think so..
True, i’m lucky to have a choice between ming and that FG nodding donkey McGuinness.
TTIP cannot be trusted when the main players are hiding the details from the people of Europe.
It’s bad enough the things secret, but do they not realise it just plays into EXACTLY what he was saying and makes them look even more sinister demanding an elected MEP self censor a video taken in a public owned building regarding a document said public is v worried about? Tools have no sense of PR.
Good for him wish there were more like him with a backbone
I don’t agree with a lot of what he says but this time it’s different. Well done Ming!
Are you sure your not in North Korea. Smells very like North Korea
Now we understand why we have Brexit
When your username finally becomes relevant …
If the original lead singer of The Pogues gets involved you will have hit the jackpot.
But anyway.
Well Done Ming.
Why did the Journal.ie decide to edit the video? Either show it, or don’t.
Most people wont wake up till there is blood on the streets irish suffer from sever cognitive dissonance
I’m not generally Flanagan’s biggest fan but he is doing exactly what he was elected to do here: serve the Irish people at the European Parliament. There is something seriously wrong with a process that attempts to circumnavigate the basics of democracy. There should be little to no level of secrecy in these negotiations. Many US citizens don’t want it signed and many European citizens don’t either. If he ends up in some legal battle for this TTIP issue (which I doubt there’d be any basis for), I’d be more than happy to contribute to a legal aid fund.
This will encourage the brits to vote for exit
What are you talking about?
The EU Parliament can reject any trade deal.
Every EU member has a veto over any trade deal.
How exactly is this undemocratic?
The secrecy at the negotiation stage is to protect consumers, so that big corporations don’t try and manipulate markets based on the price signals coming out of the negotiations.
This is how trade deals have been done for decades.
Garreth, can you really believe that?
The EU could learn a thing or two about Perestroika and glasnost.
TTIP is all about equality, the ability to reduce living standards, equally…
https://trickstersworld.com/2016/04/26/the-ttiping-point/
What would happen if he did leak it? Genuine question
They would press ahead with it and no MEP would be allowed to view the document again.
He would get 100 000€ from wikileaks?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=ABDiHspTJww
@William bayle. I just watched the video you posted a link to, very interesting 11 minutes, think everyone should watch it, thanks!
I think he should leak the lot out of principal so. This reading room sounds like a joke; just a way they can claim to be transparent without actually being transparent. The fight would continue afterwards.
Ming the fearless, doing what no other has the balls to do. Respect!!
In fairness Ming is bringing attention to a crucial issue. There is damn all being said about this from other Irish MEPs. This a link to an interview he gave on east coast fm about TTIP, anyone interested should have a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHoHO4c2Lyc
I guess his time is better spent at this as opposed to planning disastrous election campaigns like that gombeen Hayes.
Bend over lads while we insert the TTIP
just the TTIP
Come home Ming we miss you
Fair play to Ming I’m just sorry that he’s not here to give our crowd of wasters some stick
Nice to see a politician with some balls that will stand up for the truth
Good for you, Luke!
“The TTIF? You can’t handle the TTIF!”
I wouldn’t be a Ming fan but he is doing right by us in this case… TTIP is a complete attack on supposed democracy, and a real attempt to swing power into corporate hands. Shameful.
These are the very people that threatened Ireland to give the bond holders back their money or else .The Irish government now with 2 EU ROBOTS at the helm God help us I was thinking of moving to another continent .
Luke might find out more about the EU position on the issues under negotiation by asking the Americans who have accessed this information covertly.
Well done Luke,time to get out of EU.
I am all for leaving the eu.
So he’s not happy he can’t publish confidential documents!
cholly and his plastic weights ha
Why should it be confidential???
He’s not happy that they’re confidential.
Are you happy that they are?
It’s clearly above his understanding .
A massive policy shift giving power to unelected supernational bodies effecting nearly a billion people should not be “confidential”, how can an agreement be confidential to one of the parties of the bloody agreement!!!??! Elected representatives should not bed negotiating without reference to the opinions of the people they represent. This is Europe not the US we don’t think corporations are people with free speech rights and money = speech.
“A massive policy shift giving power to unelected supernational bodies effecting nearly a billion people should not be “confidential””
What unelected supernational bodies?
The European Parliament is elected. The US countrerparts are elected too.
Phil,
The unelected bodies in this case are the corporations who will be able to sue governments for potential loss of profits when they try to implement any labour or environmental laws.
I’m referring to the courts set up under the deal Phil. Now I know no court is elected (except in the US, and it’s crazy and stupid) but they’re at least appointed by govts that are. This deals also being negotiated by the commission, ID b happy if evern the President was elected but he’s not, and the EC is drowning in lobbyists with a revolving door between EC staff and the companies they regulate, which means an implicit bribe “play the game in your govt job and get a much better paid job in our company after”.
This is supposed to be democracy so these documents should not be confidential
Phil, The EU commission is not elected.
The power goes to the multinationals away from all European and US courts as the decisions of the Tribunals can not be appealed to ANY court.
The European Commission, Phil Blanc.
Has nobody asked bono Sure he’s bound to know everything about it.
Greenpeace released leaked TTIP files this week.
Their action is an excellent attack on TTIP and there is hope it will start to unravel the whole.
Ming prancing around with a fogged up camera just looks amateurish and he has no real sense on how to bring about any change or have any useful impact on anything.
Maybe he doesn’t want to materially do anything of use otherwise his 80 or 90 grand salary will disappear.
For those who missed the Greepeace expose perhaps?
he did it before the release so that’s not what he was doing. unless he had prior warning from Greenpeace?
I know I am being very harsh on him as his heart is in the right place.
I hate the idea of TTIP but I am also not stupid enough to think you can have draft negotiation documents out in the open.
His actions will probably make it harder to NGOs and activists who actually know what they are doing to get access in the future.
Why can’t you draft them out in the open, stopit? Democracy?
mainly because if you we are in an international trade negotiation I don’t want the other side seeing all documents. I’m not naive enough to think the US wouldn’t shaft the EU if they could but I think the principle should apply when we are negotiating with other countries, China etc.
Aside from that, we’ve know the problem of TTIP and this is why a citizen movement has grown (hence millions of signatures). Granted some people are only waking up to the problem but I think Mings actin isn’t helping.
He has possibly, albeit inadvertently, made it more difficult for activists who are working on transparency. e.g. if the access rule suddenly changed because of his action Greenpeace would have found it harder to choreograph their leak.
Who funds the NGOs only governments. Most are only a front for the Powers that be
The kind of man that opens the hornets nest at the campsite, zips up his tent and lets everyone else get stung. Like the busy body neighbour who tells everyone everything just to be popular. We don’t need to know everything.
A treaty giving power over domestic social and economic policy to international tribunals appointed de facto by the very companies they’ll be judging in cases, that’s exactly the kind of thing we need to know.
I think we do…
“We don’t need to know everything.”
Really? You dont think we have a right to know what the EU is doing? This deal could destroy any environmental laws already in place, prevent governments from passing laws to protect their workers etc. in case they prevent businesses making a profit.
If you don’t wanna know, bury your head in the sand and stay ignorant, Figo.
I’m out of my depth here. I’m going back to The 42.
Just read up about what this deal entails, Figo, and you’ll know why it’s so ridiculous it’s being handled this way. It’s so important for someone (here, Ming) to actually talk about it and highlight the secrecy around the discussions of this deal, otherwise, our rights will be eroded away so corporations can make a profit, and we’ll be none the wiser.
It’s easy to understand. They took something that sounded like a no brainier (an EU-USA trade deal that gets rid of import tarrifs, simplifies and harmonizes regulations etc) and stuffed it, in secret negotiations, with horrific sovereignty murdering ideas like letting corporations sue govts for lost profits they MIGHT have THEORETICALLY made if regulation / law xyz wasn’t passed, which will have what’s called a chilling effect and put them off passing Labour laws, environmental laws etc…oh asnd they’ll sue in courts wherer the companies basically pick the judges themselves. Now be as good leming and VOTE YES FOR JOBS DUH DUH DUH
Groupthink,conformity and blind faith in our “Leaders” has got Ireland to where it is…
“oh and they’ll sue in courts where the companies basically pick the judges themselves”
And, as far as I know, these courts will be secret and confidential as well. So we won’t even be allowed to know any details of these cases, or rulings.
Course not, it’s not as if “all power of government derives, under God, from the people”, think I read that somewhere once.
Some obscure fantasy novel, maybe?
Oh no… wait.
Figo. lol, read up on TTIP
He has a good point but why was he such a condescending dick to that woman I don’t think she came up with the rules!
Well Ming…if you can’t VER BATE UM….join um…gotta love him though some man.
It must be very turf on this clown to know that he is not the centre of the multiverse.
Oh shut up.
What’s a multiverse? Like a long poem?
Funny turf joke there. Because he only cares about turf and lives in a bog and loves turf and bogs. It’s very witty and you should congratulate yourself on your sharp wit. You should have put sod and bog in there as well. Like “he cares about sod all else the bogger”, then we’d all be in stitches altogether drying our eyes with a mirthful sigh at your incisive humour. Go you! You’re the man.
You’re some clown
Ah poor leo , have you turf on the mind… Bit like the dail at the moment……
That was bog awful, Lyons ..
Leo Lowebrow the grammar Nazi using poetic licence. Bahaha another epic fail ……pmsl
One step closer to a one world government
as i watched the way Ming Flanagan mep was treated, i think we the Irish Nation should oupt out of the EU just as Britain are planning to go out.
I think Emily O’Reilly deserves a mention. Fair play to her for putting pressure on the EU to increase transparency around the TTIP negotiations.
http://www.euractiv.com/section/public-affairs/interview/ombudsman-eu-must-interrogate-us-over-ttip-transparency/
The ISDS legislation along with not being able to return public utilities to the public sector once they have been privatised sounds like a recipe for globalised fascism. Not to mention the horrors deregulation of food and environmental safety standards could wrought. I think we should have a Europe wide anti TTIP protest to make it clear we will not accept this corporate tyranny.
Folks seem unhappy about “democratic process”.
First, TTIP cannot come into effect until it has been approved by the European Parliament AND by EVERY member state. Here, that means it has to go through the Dail. Any state can veto it. Personally, I’m guessing it will be difficult to get it through the democratic process.
Second, it would be madness to publish the negotiating documents. That would fatally weaken the EU hand, and the US would of course take advantage.
At the moment, it’s just a bunch of civil servants negotiating a possible deal. Those civil servants have very little power, at the end of the day.
It indicative of the ignorance that surrounds this that the one post that states the facts gets 16 down votes and only 1 up vote, while people are falling over themselves to worship a circus clown whose only known ability is to invent issues that he can pretend to be opposing.
Sean Kelly FG has already said that he agrees with TTIP. Enda said that he would help to FASTTRACK TTIP if it helps Cameron to stay in EU. SO we can be sure that our politicians can be trusted to look after the good of our country as well as the National Interest. Just look at the way Enda appointed a member of cabinet that has been overclaiming expenses on route to the Seanad.
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I am all for leaving the eu.
Sean Kelly FG that good ol Gael has unrestricted access to all the TTIP documents. Surely a past president of the GAA wouldn`t see us wronged?
Nice to see that Ming is still alive and well
is the assistant one of the people listed here on the EP page http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/1909/BERND_LANGE_assistants.html
This is total nonsense. Trade negotiations are always done in private. That’s why the security systems exist. If the details were leaked in advance of the deal it would compromise the negotiations and allow for market manipulation, price fixing etc. This is the norm in the WTO and for any country involved in unilateral negotiations.
When texts are agreed, they are released. The final deal will be debated for a full year before the Parliament and Council get to vote on it. Every country has a veto and the Parliament can vote to reject it.
What is particularly ironic about this is that the Lisbon Treaty, which Ming opposed, finally gave the Parliament the power to reject trade deals.
This is just Ming doing what he does best: making a circus out of a serious issue to promote his own celebrity.
I though he was missing
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