MEP Lola Sánchez, of Podemos Party, Spain, said this Monday in Geneva (Switzerland) that the head of the European Union delegation at the UN negotiations for a binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights, Jérôme Bellion-Jourdan, “does not represent us, because he doesn´t have an official mandate”. “We really don´t know where his opinions come from”, said Sánchez in an interview with Real World Radio.
The fourth round of negotiations started on Monday in Geneva at the UN headquarters where the delegations are discussing a binding treaty to rule over human rights violations perpetrated by transnational corporations. Since 2014, when this process started, the EU has been trying to block the negotiations. In this new round, the bloc´s attitude seems to be the same.
Also, Bellion-Jourdan “is directly contravening a resolution issued by the European Parliament last week, where the majority of the bloc in favor of the binding treaty demanded our representatives here, this man, to stop blocking and hindering the process, and to actively participate”, said Sánchez.
What we have “is a struggle between the real democratic powers, such as the European Parliament, where we are directly elected by European citizens, and a series of obscure powers that move within the European Commission, which is completely coopted by corporate power”, said the MEP. “So in the end, there is a struggle between democracy and corporate power within the European Union”, she said.
Sánchez was even more emphatic: “The European Commission is the most obscure power of all, nobody was elected there, nobody has voted for them, and they act in a completely obscure way around this issue, and all issues. It is the true heart of the EU, and it is completely coopted, full of revolving doors, wills bought, and with so much lobbying”.
At the end of the interview with Real World Radio, Sánchez stated that if the treaty is approved, it will be thanks to social movements and organizations that exert pressure in its favor. “They are indispensable, without them, none of this would be possible”.
Real World Radio