The EU's signature of the EU-Canada free-trade agreement (CETA), which had been hoped for at the bilateral summit in Brussels on 27 October, now looks uncertain as EUROPE goes to press on Monday 10 October. This is because of the threat of a veto from the two administrative regions of Belgium - the Region of Wallonia and, to a lesser extent, that of the Brussels Capital Region.
On 23 September, in an effort to overcome these final obstacles to the signing of the CETA, EU trade ministers unanimously supported the idea of annexing a binding text to the CETA – an "interpretive declaration" of the text, prepared by the Commission and the Canadian government. This would be annexed in an attempt to meet the concerns of the member states on sensitive issues such as the protection of public services, social and environmental standards, the precautionary principle and the impartiality of the arbitration mechanism involving litigation between investors and states.
In addition to the Council of the EU's decision on the signing of the agreement on behalf of the EU and the provisional application of the CETA, this text must be examined and validated by the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU (Coreper) on 12 October. All texts will then be sent on to the ministers for trade during a special meeting on 18 October.
It is possible, however, that Belgium's representative at the Council, Trade Minister Didier Reynders, may be unable to give his country's approval.
As part of the very complex federal Belgian system, the federal authority must obtain full powers from the federal parliament and those of the three administrative regions (Brussels Capital, the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region), as well as the three linguistic communities (Flemish community, Walloon -Brussels Federation and the German-speaking community).
The parliaments of the Belgian federal undertakings now have the "interpretive declaration" of the CETA and have to say whether they will authorise their executives to give full powers to the Belgian federal authority to approve the signing of the CETA by the EU on behalf of Belgium.
Although the federal level and Flemish region have already indicated that they would support the agreement, prospects are much more uncertain for the Walloon Region and the Brussels Capital Region, as well as the Walloon-Brussels Federation.
At the end of last week, the Brussels Capital Region government indicated that it did not have unanimity on the text and that it was awaiting the position of its parliament to move forward.
The Walloon Parliament European Affairs Committee is expected to examine the dossier on Thursday. Hearings from the Canadian representatives and academics are planned to help the regional delegates make a decision. On the following day, the Walloon Parliament will meet up for an extraordinary plenary session to confirm its resolution or not from last April in which it called on the government of the Walloon Region, headed by the socialist, Paul Magnette, to refuse full powers to Reynders in view of signing the CETA. Opposition to the CETA was in a strong majority at the Walloon Parliament.
The Parliament of the Walloon-Brussels Federation was bringing together its International Relations Committee on Monday and was expected to give its verdict on the "interpretive declaration" and therefore the treaty, explained Belgian newspaper Le Soir on Monday morning. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)