On behalf of the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council at the end of the EU General Affairs Council on Tuesday 20 September, Slovakia's secretary of state for foreign and European affairs, Ivan Korčok, spoke of a consensus obtained between the EU28 on the EU-Canada free trade agreement (CETA) and the fact that it respects the criteria for transparency and a balanced agreement. It is hoped that the agreement will be signed at the end of October.
At the end of a preparatory Council meeting ahead of the European Council on 20-21 October, Korčok stated that "the discussions demonstrated how important it is that the trade negotiations are transparent and the trade agreements balanced. EU ministers believe that these criteria have been fulfilled by the free trade agreement with Canada".
During a press briefing in front of the Council at the end of the meeting, a European source says that the French secretary of state for European affairs, Harlem Désir, asserted: "We need to ensure that the European Council agrees for the CETA to be signed".
CETA is expected to be signed during an EU-Canada summit in Brussels on 27 October, two years after the formal conclusion of the agreement on 26 September 2014.
The draft Council decision on the signature on behalf of the EU and on the provisional application of CETA is due to be approved by EU Permanent Representatives (Coreper) on 12 October at the latest, with a view to its adoption by the General Affairs Council on 18 October.
On 5 July, the Commission proposed the signature and conclusion of the CETA as a "mixed agreement", which means that its ratification by the EU would require the approval of the European Parliament and national parliaments (see EUROPE 11587).
Once signed, the draft agreement will be examined, on the EU side, by the European Parliament in November, which will be requested to give its assent for the provisional implementation of CETA.
In Germany, Sigmar Gabriel calls on the SPD to support CETA. At the cost of a compromise with the left-wing of his party, the German vice chancellor and minister for the economy, Sigmar Gabriel, managed to get the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to support CETA. His position was approved by two thirds of the social democrat delegates meeting in Wolfsburg on Monday 19 September. The enlarged steering committee of the SPD approved a compromise that includes an exhaustive process of hearings on CETA-related questions between the European Parliament, national parliaments, unions and NGOs, on the understanding that CETA will not be able to enter into force before the end of this process. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)