Just EU Investment Policy now! http://www.tni.org/article/just-eu-investment-policy-now 

European Parliament resolution on international investment not strong enough to end threat to democratic governance and public interests.Today the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the future European investment policy. This resolution comes as a response to a Communication by the Commission following the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty that has added Foreign Direct Investment to the exclusive common commercial policy of the EU. The resolution of the European Parliament distances itself from the Council conclusions of 25 October 2010.

In its conclusions, the Council calls for an EU investment policy that copies the ‘bad practices’ of the EU member states, which focus one-sidedly on the protection of EU investors abroad, with little consideration for the negative effects on the policy space of governments in the host countries. The European Parliament at least recognises some of the flaws in the EU Member States’ current international investment agreements,

including the use of imprecise language which “allows international arbitrators to make broad interpretations of investor protection clauses, leading to the ruling out of legitimate public regulation” (§24).The Parliament stresses that the ”future agreements concluded by the EU must respect the capacity for public intervention” (§23). The Parliament also notes that for investment agreements to benefit developing countries “they should […] be based on investor obligations in terms of compliance with human rights and anti-corruption standards…”(§37).

[See>S2B Statement on EP vote  http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/S2B%20Statement%20on%20EP%20vote.pdf