The EU’s trade deal with Canada was pulled back from the brink on Thursday after Belgian regional leaders dropped their objections to Belgium’s government signing the pact in an eleventh-hour rescue.
The agreement came just hours after Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, cancelled a trip to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement in Brussels.
MPs in the French-speaking region of Wallonia, as well as in the Brussels region and in the country’s tiny German-speaking region have been asked to drop resistance to the Ceta treaty by midnight on Friday.
Charles Michel, Belgium’s prime minister, said the regional parliaments would have “the last word” on a deal that would retain Belgium’s “credibility on the international stage”.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said he would only contact Mr Trudeau “once all procedures are finalised” for the EU to sign Ceta.
There has been deep frustration among Ceta’s supporters at the failure of the Belgian regional leaders to approve a deal that the government in Brussels and those of 27 other member states had agreed to sign.
Mr Tusk has warned that a collapse of Ceta would have “obvious consequences” for Europe’s global position.
The Ceta affair has been deeply embarrassing for EU leaders, who had hoped the deal would prepare the ground for the even bigger Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership pact with the US. Instead the affair has raised questions over the ability of the EU to conclude complex deals that require the support of all the parliaments in the bloc.
Objections were led by MPs in the French-speaking Belgian region of Wallonia, where there are two parliamentary chambers. They were followed by MPs in two Brussels-based assemblies and the parliament for the small German-speaking community.
Belgium’s government strongly supports the deal but under the federal structure it cannot sign a deal without regional approval. The national parliament backed Ceta as did the parliament in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders.
The parties came close to a deal on Wednesday night but talks broke up — resulting in the cancellation of an EU-Canada summit that had been scheduled for months.
Before he cancelled his visit, Mr Trudeau said the logjam could still be broken. “We are confident that in the coming days we will see a positive outcome for this historic deal.”
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s trade minister, said the country was ready to sign this important agreement “when Europe is ready”.
After weeks of fruitless talks, the arrangement to secure Ceta comprises an “interpretative declaration” on the most contentious elements of the deal.
The arrangement will allow Ceta to enter into force provisionally but without the immediate introduction of new investment courts, on which Walloon leaders have reserved their position.
A provision allowing the European Court of Justice to provide an “opinion” on the legality of the these courts was seized on as a victory by anti-Ceta campaigners, but officials briefed on the declaration said any such opinion would not be binding as there was nothing in the declaration to reopen the Ceta pact.
“The treaty itself has not been touched, not a comma has been touched,” Mr Michel told parliament.
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