“If we don’t make a deal with the Canadians, I don’t know with whom we will make trade agreements”, warned the MEP and chair of the delegation for relations with Canada, Javier Moreno Sánchez (S&D, Spanish). The majority of political groups represented in the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) agreed that Canada is a major partner that shares European values, during an exchange of views on Wednesday, 31 August. “With such serious partners, the ratification process must be accelerated”, Moreno Sánchez told his colleagues.
His comments were supported by the Chair of the INTA Committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, German), who said it was unacceptable that the agreement had not yet been ratified by all Member States. The European Parliament, in turn, had ratified the agreement by 2017, allowing for the provisional application of the trade provisions (see EUROPE 11726/1).
The two Socialist MEPs were joined by their colleagues from the EPP and Renew Europe, European conservatives and reformists, as well as Canada’s ambassador to the EU, Ailish Campbell.
The Greens/EFA and The Left questioned how the EU and Canada could update the sustainable development chapters in the agreement in line with the new approach presented by the European Commission in June (see EUROPE 12977/13).
For Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgian), the clarifications that the Commission proposed on investment protection in CETA at the end of August (see EUROPE 12009/17) could have been an opportunity to also address the issue of sustainability and sustainable development chapters in the agreement.
She also asked whether the clarification document proposed by the Commission would be transmitted to the European Parliament. Asked by EUROPE at the time of the announcement of the proposal on 29 August, the European Commission said the document was confidential. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)