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Up to 15,000 protesters from across the continent marched through the Belgian capital calling for a series of controversial EU trade deals to be immediately scrapped. Furious campaigners accused unelected Brussels bureaucrats of putting the interests of their big business cronies ahead of those of the European people in another sign of the EU’s growing unpopularity.

They were calling for the scrapping of two controversial trade deals with the US and Canada which experts have warned could lead to the dismantlement of European public services. Brussels has been totally caught off guard by the astonishing level of opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Comprehensives Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) agreements. WHAT IS TTIP?

EPA Up to 15,000 people protested against EU trade policies in Brussels

AFP The TTIP and CETA trade deals have provoked outrage across the continent

And it is now facing a popularity crisis over its hated trade policies which is fast growing into a serious threat to the future viability of the whole European project. Last night’s protest in the EU capital was organised by trade unions and environmental and consumer rights groups who want to put pressure on European leaders ahead of a scheduled round of talks about TTIP to take place on Friday. Campaigners carried slogans reading "power to the people, not the multinationals" and "the people and the planet as a priority” as they put on a show of people power against the Euro elite. They also symbolically placed two horses outside the European Parliament building. The deals have been compared to Trojan Horses which will let big US corporations ultimately take over the governance of Europe. WHAT IS CETA?

AFP They have been likened to Trojan horses that will bring down European democracy

REUTERS Angela Merkel has vowed to stand by the hated trade deals

And Mark Brady, spokesman for Greenpeace Europe, said: “We are against these trade deals because they are a threat for the environment, for health, for labor regulations and they give so much power to multinational corporations.” The event’s organisers said that up to 15,000 people attended the rally, although Belgian police claimed that the number of protesters was actually closer to 6,000. Critics say that the twin trade deals are so dangerous because of a clause both contain which allows for the setting up of a supranational court where US corporations can lodge legal claims against EU governments. Under the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) scheme American companies have previously taken elected politicians to court for banning advertising on cigarette packaging, bringing in new green laws and even raising the minimum wage.

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