Without the backing of the Greens and nearly half of the Social Democrats, the European Parliament on Wednesday 15 February gave its consent, with 408 votes in favour, 254 against and 33 abstentions, to the provisional implementation of the free-trade agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA), which is held by its proponents to be the most progressive ever free-trade agreement.
The majority of the text - its trade provisions - will apply provisionally from the first day of the month following the date on which the EU and Canada have notified each other that they have completed all necessary internal procedures, whilst implementation of the provisions on investment protection will remain on ice, until all of the national and regional parliaments of the EU have also ratified it (the Latvian parliament will be the first to take position on the agreement, Parliament's rapporteur on CETA, Latvia's Andris Pabriks, announced).
The new Canadian Trade Minister, Philippe Champagne, who was present in Strasbourg, told the press that for his part that CETA had secured the support, the day before, of the House of Commons of Canada and that it would now be referred to the Canadian Senate. If the latter votes in favour by the end of March, CETA will therefore be able to enter into force on 1 April.
Addressing the plenary assembly ahead of the vote, during a long debate (three hours) that was tough going in places, the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, stressed that CETA was "a progressive agreement with a progressive partner". "There is nothing in this agreement that will affect the safety of the food we eat or the products we buy, or bring about the privatisation of public services", she reiterated.
The progressive nature of CETA was unfailingly hailed by all of its defenders, led by Pabriks. "This is truly a key agreement. It will set a precedent, not because we cannot do any better, but because nobody has ever done better before", he stressed.
In the opposite corner, those not in favour of CETA, including certain members of the European Parliament and thousands of civil society activists demonstrating around the Parliament buildings, reiterated their arguments against CETA: a threat to democracy, dangers related to cooperation in matters of regulation, with the risk that corporate lobbies will be able to get in on the decision-making process by the back door, an agreement too much in favour of multinationals (in particular through its investment dispute settlement mechanism), gaps in the protection of workers' rights and the environment, a threat to agriculture and public services, etc.
With the exception of a few discordant or dissident voices, the ratification of CETA was finally supported by all members of the two conservative groups (the EPP and ECR) and of the Liberal group (ALDE). However, just over half of the Socialist and Democrat group (S&D) voted for Parliament to give its blessing to the implementation of CETA.
The S&D has been deeply divided over this agreement, which the group's chair, Gianni Pittella of Italy, praised on Thursday as the "start of a change of European trade policy, if not a template". Beyond figures that speak for themselves (95 votes in favour, 67 votes against and 13 abstentions within the group and 25 MEPs who did not vote), an analysis of the results of the roll-call vote confirms the dividing lines in almost all of the national delegations of the S&D. All French, Belgian and Austrian members voted against CETA, as did many German, Italian, Bulgarian, Romanian members, but also British ones. It is also worth noting that the President of the Party of European Socialists, Bulgaria's Sergueï Stanishev, who voted in favour, subsequently asked for his vote to be changed to a negative one.
Furthermore, the vote on CETA shows that there is not a unanimous position within the French delegations of the EPP and ALDE. For instance, within the EPP group (where five MEPs – two Belgians and three Poles – voted against), six French MEPs – including former ministers Michèle Alliot-Marie, Brice Hortefeux and Nadine Morano – abstained, having received no response to their concerns as to the impact of CETA on the agricultural industry, particularly on the beef industry. Of the ALDE group, former minister Jean Arthuis and Robert Rochefort voted against and Marielle de Sarnez abstained.
The extreme left-wing group (GUE/NGL) without exception, all but four members of the ecologist group (Greens/EFA), all but five members of the EFDD (made up of British UKIP members and the Italian the Five Star Movement), all of the extreme right wing group (ENF) and the majority of the unaffiliated MEPs voted against the CETA.
On behalf of the Greens/EFA group, French member Yannick Jadot slammed CETA as the "logical conclusion of a process of deregulation, privatisation of standards". "This is too precious, too rare a time in our history not to look at what explains Brexit and Trump", he commented, going on to accuse Malmström of "fanning the flames that feed the far right".
Dutch GUE/NGL member Anne-Marie Mineur reiterated her group's opposition to a "very poor agreement", that is considered by many lawyers, trade union experts and consumer representatives as a "threat". Mineur also reiterated that 3.5 million citizens from all over Europe had signed a petition against CETA and TTIP.
Finally, the leader of the ENF group, Marine Le Pen of France, the president of the Front National, criticised what she described as an "evil treaty that will destroy thousands of jobs". (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)