Ms Lynn Boylan:

I welcome the Commissioner. I have three specific questions, one of which relates to regulatory co-operation. The draft regulatory co-operation chapters under Article 3 state that it is applicable to all planned regulatory acts, also those sectors not covered by TTIP. I ask the Commissioner to comment.

There is a reference to exchanges in regulatory acts at non-central level. This indicates that this legislation has been planned at the level of member states or at federal state level as opposed to at EU level. Will this tie the hands of national parliaments?

We have been given reassurances about food and our high standards on the use of chemicals. Michael Froman has said that the EU process must become more like the US process. What steps are being taken to protect the precautionary principle which is fundamental to European standards? Our standards allow for the taking into account of societal economic, ethical and environmental concerns which the US model does not do. What steps is the Commissioner taking to protect the precautionary principle?

My final question is about labour protections. There is a concern that because of the nature of the US Constitution the US cannot necessarily sign up to ILO conventions - it has signed up to two out of eight conventions. It would not be a precedent for the EU to insist that the US and the EU sign up to labour conditions which are preconditional to ratification of the TTIP. As this is taking place under NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement, the bodies involved in that agreement signed up to labour conditions and protections. Is the Commission looking for those sort of protections for our workers?