Brussels, 10/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a joint resolution from the EPP, S&D, ALDE and ECR groups, adopted in plenary session on 5 May, the day of the annual EU-Canada Summit (see EUROPE 10133), the European Parliament called on its transatlantic partners to speed up negotiations on the bilateral comprehensive economic and trade agreement (CETA) which was launched in 2009. This approach has been dismissed by the GUE/NGL, which talks of the toxic nature of the agreement. “This resolution takes only a purely economic approach. It welcomes the ongoing CETA negotiations with no concern for the social, economic and environmental damage that such an agreement would occasion. To open up markets, the CETA would force Canada to privatise its telecommunications and its water management, and this at a time when the EU has lodged an appeal against Ontario's green energy law and the Canadian Supreme Court's decision of August 2004 on the monopoly of Canada Post,” laments French MEP Marie-Christine Vergiat in a press release. Public Services International recently expressed its concerns on the social impact of the CETA (see EUROPE 10122). (E.H./transl.rt)