International

The adjustments demanded by the Walloons to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada must be put before the national parliaments, argues the SP. To that effect Member of Parliament Jasper van Dijk has requested a debate with Trade Minister Lilianne Ploumen. “It would be bizarre if Brussels were to continue to shove the amended treaty down the throats of the people.”

Belgium’s refusal to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union means the beginning of the end for the treaty, according to SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur. “The Walloons continue to stand up for democracy and fair trade,’ she says. ‘That’s not compatible with this stranglehold agreement. This must mark the end of CETA, nothing else is possible. Its supporters have suffered a heavy defeat.”

Trade treaties such as CETA and TTIP contain numerous vague promises and loose ends. Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur supports the Walloons in their struggle against them.

Frits Veerman, the whistleblower whose revelations forty years ago made public the activities of Pakistani atomic spy Abdul Khan, is being helped by a former detective who in the past conducted an investigation into the affair, according to the national daily De Telegraaf. SP Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak sees this as a possible breakthrough in the enquiry into this international atomic scandal and hopes that it will at least clear Frits Veerman’s name.

Now that the Canadian trade minister has stated, in the wake of the death of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), that negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada have also failed, it’s time in the SP’s view to pull the plug on the European trade policy. The European Commission turns out to be unable to conclude trade agreements which can command broad support. Time for fair trade, argue SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur and national MP Jasper van Dijk, the party’s two parliamentary spokespersons on trade-related issues.

The SP is completely unimpressed by the ‘interpretative declaration’ which European Commissioner for trade Cecilia Malmström is offering in response to the justified objections which four Belgian regional parliaments – representing respectively Walloons, Francophones, German-speakers and the capital region of Brussels – have raised against the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Without the approval of the Walloon Parliament, currently withheld, Belgium cannot agree to it, and this will mean that the European Union will also be unable to agree to the treaty.

Belgium has the fate of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada in its hands. Last week the Walloon Parliament, representing the French-speaking region of the federalised country, voted to reject the controversial treaty, because of fears of unfair competition and of the undermining of democracy. In doing so Wallonia expressed the concerns of millions of Europeans and hundreds of social organisations.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada is more than ever an empty shell, and the decision of the German Constitutional Court in its favour as well as the haste with which the European Commission has given the treaty its approval, are starting to acquire laughable proportions. The SP is opposed to the agreement in its entirety, but suggests that at the very least the verdict of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) should be awaited.

On Thursday the SP organised a public hearing on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreeement (CETA) between the EU and Canada. Some ten experts were in attendance, including legal specialists and representatives of the Netherlands' two main trade union federations, the Consumers' Association and the country's major environmental group, Milieudefensie. The conclusion was unambiguous: there are so many objections to the current CETA Treaty that it must be rejected.