|
Prime Minister Charles Michel said the heads of the regions had
drawn up an addendum to the agreement that answered their
concerns over the rights of farmers and governments - an
addendum that still needs the approval of Canada and other EU
states.
Canada called the announcement a "positive development", a
cautious welcome echoed by European Council President Donald
Tusk, who chairs EU leaders' summits.
But both stopped short of declaring the Comprehensive Economic
and Trade Agreement (CETA), a done deal.
"Only once all procedures are finalised for EU signing CETA,
will I contact (Canadian) PM @JustinTrudeau," Tusk said in a
tweet.
All 28 EU governments back CETA, which supporters say could
increase trade by 20 percent, but Belgium had been prevented
from giving its consent because of objections led by its
French-speaking Wallonia region.
Wallonia, along with the capital Brussels and Belgium's grouping
of French speakers, had opposed the deal for weeks, saying it
was bad for Europe's farmers and gave too much power to global
corporate interests.
Belgium's Prime Minister Michel did not give detail on Thursday
on how Wallonia's concerns had been allayed in the addendum. But
the premier of the Flemish region, Geert Bourgeois, said the
original 1,598-page text of the trade deal stood.
"This is a clarification, the actual treaty does not change," he
said
Failure to strike a deal with such a like-minded country as
Canada would have called into question the EU's ability to forge
other deals and damage credibility already battered by Britain's
vote to leave the bloc and disputes over the migration crisis.
Canada's trade minister Chrystia Freeland, who walked out of
talks in Walloon capital Namur last Friday, had asked, if the EU
could not do a deal with Canada, who could it do a deal with.
"I'm sorry for all other Europeans and our Canadian partners
that they had to wait, but what we managed to get here is
important not just for Wallonia but for all of Europe," said
Paul Magnette, Socialist premier of the Walloon region who has
led opposition to the deal.
He said the Belgian deal meant the trade agreement would be one
that set clear rules on the global economic order.
"We want to regulate the market, we want to protect citizens,
for that we fought, and I think it was worth it because we were
heard."
(Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Kevin
Liffey and Andrew Heavens)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
