BRUSSELS—Aspects of a sweeping trade agreement being discussed by the European Union and the U.S. are of serious concern for consumers and the environment, Greenpeace said Monday, citing internal negotiation documents it later leaked.

But the EU's trade chief quickly dismissed such concerns, saying no EU trade deal would lower the level of protection the EU offers consumers, food safety or the environment.

The world's two biggest economic blocs have been discussing the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, since 2013. The deal would leave tariffs close to zero and remove or streamline a host of regulations that hinder trade in goods ranging from cars to chemicals.

Greenpeace Netherlands posted 248 pages of draft documents on its website. The documents, Greenpeace says, comprise about half of the draft text as of April 2016, prior to the start of the latest round of trade negotiations between the two sides, which took place in New York last week.

Greenpeace outlined four specific areas of concern, including that long-standing environmental protections appear to be dropped and that climate protection will be harder under the trade deal.

"Trade should not be excluded from climate action. But nothing indicating climate protection can be found in the obtained texts," Greenpeace said in a news release.

"It is time to shine a light on these negotiations. Hard-won environmental progress is being bartered away behind closed doors," said Faiza Oulahsen, campaigner for Greenpeace Netherlands.

But EU officials quickly played down concerns stemming from the leak, stressing that the documents outlined the positions of the two sides and not one common agreed position.

The texts "reflect each side's negotiating position, nothing else," Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU's trade chief wrote in a blog, adding that "today's alarmist headlines are a storm in a teacup."

"No EU trade agreement will ever lower our level of protection of consumers, or food safety, or of the environment," she said.

The EU's chief TTIP negotiator, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, echoed Ms. Malmstrom's comments, saying "quite frankly some of the points that Greenpeace has been making on the basis of this document are flatly wrong."

A spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative said that while the U.S. doesn't comment on that validity of alleged leaks, the interpretations being given to these texts "appear to be misleading at best and flat out wrong at worst."

"TTIP will preserve, not undermine, our strong consumer, health, environmental standards," he added.

The leak by Greenpeace comes at a sensitive time for the negotiations, which have entered a critical phase.

Both sides have said they would like to conclude the deal before the end of the current U.S. administration in January 2017. But both have also said that speed won't take precedence over substance in securing a deal.

It also comes a week after U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to lift momentum for the trans-Atlantic trade deal during Mr. Obama's visit to Hannover, Germany. The two leaders called on negotiators to move forward with TTIP, saying the window to strike a deal could soon close as it faces resistance in both countries.

Asked about the leaks, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Ms. Merkel's cabinet had a strong interest in a rapid agreement on an ambitious TTIP, adding that one in four of the country's jobs depended on international trade.

Although Germany isn't directly negotiating with the U.S. on TTIP—the European Commission represents the entire bloc in the talks—experts see the country as one of the main potential beneficiaries of the deal because of its large export sector and vast trade surplus.

Ms. Merkel was among the first European politicians to call for closer trade relations with the U.S. and her government has been a strong backer of the pact. But German voters—like their American counterparts—have been a lot more skeptical.

A late February poll conducted by YouGov for the Bertelsmann Foundation and released two weeks ago showed only 15% of Americans and 17% of Germans supported TTIP. A third of Germans and 18% of Americans opposed the free-trade agreement, the survey showed.

Write to Viktoria Dendrinou at viktoria.dendrinou@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2016 01:05 ET (05:05 GMT)