EC commissioner Malmström to meet with prime minister
European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström will arrive in Tallinn on Friday, Sept. 9, to meet with Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas (Reform). Their meeting will cover the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaty, or free trade treaty between the EU and the United States.
Malmström will also meet Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand (independent) as well as the chairmen of the European Union Affairs Committees of the parliaments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, according to the commissioner’s schedule.
Rõivas and Malmström are set to speak about the current state of affairs in the TTIP negotiations as well as the situation in Ukraine, government spokesperson Helin Vaher told BNS.
The commissioner will not meet with Minister of Entrepreneurship Liisa Oviir (SDE).
“Minister Oviir and Commissioner Malmström won’t be able to meet in Tallinn on September 9, because Minister Oviir will be on a visit to Singapore then,” Paavo Palk, acting head of the representation of the European Commission to Estonia, told BNS.
The French minister for foreign trade, Matthias Fekl, said on Tuesday that his government demanded that negotiations on the TTIP should cease.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday that the free trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States had failed, but “nobody is really admitting it.” Malmström said on Monday that the talks hadn't failed and the aim was to get as far with them as possible by the end of the year.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS