Press release

Press release: 500 NGOs call for NO to EU-Chile agreement

A container ship in frontal view.

Vote on the EU-Chile trade agreement in the EU Parliament - More than 500 NGOs call for NO to the agreement!

Berlin, 27.02.2024: On Thursday 29 February, the European Parliament will vote on the trade and investment agreement with Chile. More than 500 civil society organisations and personalities from the EU and Latin America have already met in advance with a explanation and one Open letter to MEPs Calling on them to vote against the agreement.

In doing so, they highlight the increasing extraction of raw materials such as lithium and copper without sufficient protection mechanisms and compliance with standards, and criticize the newly inserted corporate complaints law and the further reduction of tariffs for agricultural products. It is not for nothing that many of the current protests in front of small farmers are explicitly directed against the signing of further free trade agreements.

“The EU-Chile Enlarged Framework Agreement is full of double standards. Environmental and climate protection as well as human rights are behind the interests of European industry in Chilean raw materials", says Bettina Müller from PowerShift e.V.

This is also shown in a recent information booklet published by PowerShift, Anders Handeln, Attac Germany and Austria as well as the Forum Environment and Development. “Partnership on an equal footing? The EU-Chile Trade and Investment Agreement”.

"Investment protection in the EU-Chile Agreement poses a real threat to sustainable development. In the case of contracts between EU states, special complaints for corporations are no longer legally compliant. It is therefore completely incomprehensible why the EU relies on this outdated and dangerous concept of arbitral tribunals in agreements with third countries", says Ludwig Essig, coordinator of the network of fair world trade and speaker for trade policy at the Environmental Institute in Munich.

This is also the conclusion reached by the study published by the Environmental Institute Munich and the Hans Böckler Foundation. Investment protection in EU trade agreements with Mexico and Chile: Impact on sustainability and energy transition

“The EU identifies lithium as a strategic and critical raw material that plays a key role in its energy transition strategy. The agreement would give the EU, as a privileged partner, enhanced opportunities to exploit the raw materials of the Atacama salars. Lithium may then not be sold more cheaply to domestic or foreign customers than to the EU", says Hanni Gramann from the Attac Lithium Robbery campaign group. “Increased lithium extraction in the Atacama Desert would have significant negative impacts on the ecology and living conditions of indigenous communities, including the EU study on sustainability impact assessment emphasised. For example, water-intensive lithium mining could further reduce groundwater levels in the extremely rain-poor region.”

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

  • Bettina Müller, Policy Officer for Trade and Investment Policy, PowerShift e.V., 0174 4537604, bettina.mueller@power-shift.de
  • Ludwig Essig, Coordinator of the Fair World Trade Network, Trade Policy Officer at the Environmental Institute, 0176 546 752 53, essig@forumue.de
  • Hanni Gramann, Attac Campaign Group Lithium Robbery, 176 3060 8762, hanni.gramann@attac.de
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