(Brussels) “Before di completing, approving and ratifying the proposal of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), it is necessary to make a thorough analysis of cost/benefit relations on social and environmental level”: it is the opening of the document made known today and jointly signed by Card. Reinhard Marx, President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), and Msgr. Joseph Edward Kurtz, President of the US Bishops’ Conference. Bishops want TTIP to really foster “wellness of all citizens, and above all, of the poor”; to lead to “a safer and peaceful world”; and to avoid increasing “economic and political tensions”. Without both excessive regulations and full freedom, “pacts and treaties should support social dynamism, fostering the creative powers of the mind and the heart, promoting equal participation to all members of the only human family”, wrote the two presidents, quoting Pope Francis and Pope Benedict, recalling that “trade policies should be based on ethical principles focussing on the person”, and ought to “comply with the principles defending human life, protecting environment and health, promoting justice and peace”. Bishops ask for “the poorest and most vulnerable to be put in the first place”; they should be the principle guiding the TTIP.