A Sinn Féin MEP has called on the European Commission to make public all documents relating to ongoing trade negotiations with the United States.

Europe and the US are proposing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which would allow for freer trade between the two regions.

Proponents of the deal say it could be worth over $100bn to both North American and European parties.

However there has been growing opposition to the proposed deal. 

An estimated 250,000 people marched in the German capital Berlin last weekend to protest against TTIP.

Opponents of the deal argue that the agreement between EU states, the US and Cananda will lower environmental, food safety and employment standards, and have opposed the secretive nature of negotiations surrounding it.

Attac Ireland is holding a protest against TTIP outside the Central Bank in Dublin tomorrow afternoon. You can find out more information here.

Meanwhile Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy is highlighting "the absurdity" of secrecy arrangements, saying that only limited documents are being made available to MEPs who enter a 'Classified Information Unit' where some TTIP documents are kept under lock and key.

Mr Carthy says he entered the "secret reading room" to read draft TTIP proposals on agriculture earlier this week.

In a statement, he says "I had to sign a confidentiality agreement swearing never to divulge the information, my phone was taken from me and I was accompanied into the room by an official, who remained in the reading room for the duration.

"The documents that I saw this week and the documents that have remained under lock and key by the commission must be released so that people can make informed judgments. The potentials of TTIP are too important and too dangerous for details to be kept from European citizens," he adds.