Austria, where there is the greatest danger of a veto on signing the EU-Canada free trade agreement (CETA), is unlikely to oppose the deal, said Austria's Chancellor Christian Kern (social democrat) on Monday 3 October, adding that the process was on track and opposing the idea of a referendum in his country.
A referendum "is not completely unreasonable, but I do not think it’s the right way", Kern told reporters in Vienna on Monday, adding that the Austrian parliament was the "right forum" for further discussion about the draft agreement.
Kern said his government's "legal demands" will be met if the arbitration mechanism for investment disputes is not implemented before the ratification of CETA by the national parliaments, and if the member state governments have the right to decide which services they define as public.
Austria's Vice-Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner (conservative) welcomed this decision, saying there were no further obstacles to a joint approach within the Austrian government (Ed: led by a big coalition of social democrats and conservatives).
To overcome the final obstacles to signing CETA (it is hoped signature will take place at a bilateral summit in Brussels on 27 October), EU trade ministers unanimously backed the idea on 23 September of a binding text being annexed to CETA to give an ‘interpretive statement’ about the agreement, prepared by the European Commission and the Canadian government, in order to ease member states’ fears about sensitive issues such as protecting public services, social standards and environmental rules, the precautionary principle and impartiality of the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.
This statement will be drawn up by the COREPER meeting of EU member states’ sherpas on 12 October, which is due to approve the Council's draft decisions on signature on behalf of the EU and on provisional application of CETA. All the documents will then be submitted to trade ministers at a special meeting on 18 October. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)