On Wednesday 12 October, the signing of the EU-Canada free-trade deal (CETA) at the bilateral summit in Brussels on 27 October looked uncertain because it requires the approval by a number of countries, including Belgium and Germany, which are still going through their domestic procedures.
On Wednesday, member states’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) were to validate draft Council decisions on signing on behalf of the EU and provisional application of CETA, along with a request for the European Parliament’s consent for the conclusion of CETA.
Despite consensus at technical level, the ambassadors were unable to formally endorse the documents that EU trade ministers are due to validate at a special meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 18 October.
A source from the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU told us on Wednesday that the texts have been stabilised and they were awaiting "political clearance, a green light, from the capitals".
The three decisions require a qualified majority for adoption by the Council, but the Slovak Presidency wants agreement on the decisions because all member states will have to sign and ratify the deal.
Technically, the member states agree on the texts, but they are not able to agree formally, explained an EU source.
Several member states still need to complete their own authorisation processes for the EU’s signing of CETA - Belgium, for example, where two administrative regions (the Walloon region and, to a lesser extent, Brussels Capital) are threatening not to grant full powers to the Belgian federal government to sign the agreement (see EUROPE 11642).
This is also the case in Germany, whose federal constitutional court at Karlsruhe is due to decide on Thursday whether to authorise the German government to sign CETA, and then, at a later date, it will decide whether CETA is allowed under Germany’s constitution. The Karlsruhe court has already begun examining appeals lodged by German NGOs (see EUROPE 11612).
An EU source says that, alongside Belgium and Germany, Austria, Slovenia and the Netherlands also expressed reservations on Wednesday, saying that national consultations on CETA had not yet ended in their countries. Bulgaria and Romania repeated their concerns that their nationals will require a visa to visit Canada.
Finally, the EU28 ambassadors discussed a draft interpretation declaration to be annexed to CETA to ease member states’ concerns about sensitive issues such as social and environmental standards, protection of public services, the precautionary principle and the investor-state dispute settlement system.
"We made quite good progress" on this, a Slovak diplomatic source told us. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)