Stop TTIP campaigns have been particularly vocal in Germany and Austria, which supporters of TTIP say are among the countries most likely to benefit from increased US trade.
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“We need a clear, clean, definitive halt to negotiations to be able to resume on a good basis”, Fekl said on RMC radio, without elaborating on what conditions would be necessary for new talks.
He said that the negotiations were loaded in favour of the United States, with the Americans giving Europe “nothing or mere crumbs”.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, of Gabriel’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), urged diplomats and business chiefs on Tuesday to counter anti-globalization sentiments that are fuelling opposition to free trade deals.
Michael Froman, a USA trade spokesman, subsequently denied the talks had stalled.
Merkel backs the talks and her spokesman insisted on Monday that they should continue.
“We will never accept questioning essential principles for our agriculture, our culture and for the reciprocity of access to public [procurement] markets”, Hollande said.
The UK was seen as one of the strongest supporters of TTIP in the European Union, so its departure following the Brexit vote would remove one of the US’s closest allies in the talks.
French President Francois Hollande announced that the deal could not be completed on schedule and Germany’s deputy leader, Sigmar Gabriel, went further, declaring that TTIP has “de facto failed”.
Belgium, Romania and Bulgaria said they can’t sign the deal in its present form, while Greece and Poland want details of the agreement to be modified. Given the absence of any global deal doing something similar through the World Trade Organisation, TTIP appeared the best game in town. Among the stumbling blocks is a United States objection to opening public tenders to European companies.
But the European Commission reportedly said the “ball was still rolling” on the negotiations, which first started in 2013, according to Reuters.
But the talks have become bogged down amid widespread suspicion in the 28-nation European Union that a deal would undercut the bloc’s standards in key areas such as health and welfare.
France’s trade minister has increased the pressure on the proposed EU-US trade deal by calling for the talks to be called off. “It is inevitable”, the minister said.
And Germany´s vice chancellor and economy minister Sigmar Gabriel said Sunday that the negotiations were effectively dead in the water.
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In its election manifesto, Fianna Fail indicated its broad support for a deal, the section on TTIP begins, “Fianna Fáil supports the principle of removing barriers to trade”.
