01/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - No resumption of free-trade talks in sight. Free-trade negotiations between the EU and Thailand, which were launched in March 2013, but suspended after three rounds of talks following a coup d'etat in Bangkok in May 2014, are unlikely to resume any time soon. “The negotiations were suspended for political reasons. It is up to the member states of the EU to decide when the political conditions are right for negotiations to resume. For the time being, unfortunately, things are not going in the right direction”, Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom commented, when asked about the issue by EUROPE following the meeting of the European trade ministers on 27 November. The markets of Southeast Asia are central to the Commission's new programme, which was tabled in October and which stresses that the EU remains committed to resume free-trade talks with Thailand “when the conditions are right to do so”. (EH)