EU/Canada agreement: Publication of the official text
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Actu-Environnement | 29 September 2014
EU/Canada Agreement: Publication of the official text
Freely translated by Anoosha Boralessa in April 2015. Not reviewed or revised by bilaterals.org or any organization or person
Author: Florence Roussel
On the occasion of the EU Canadian Summit that took place in Ottawa on 26 September, the two parties officially concluded negotiations on CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission declared: “CETA is an agreement of the next generation, a source of expanded possibilities both for our businesses that will benefit from identical treatment on both sides of the Atlantic and for job creation”.
According to the EU, once implemented, the agreement should increase EU-Canadian trade in goods and services by 23% and will increase the European Union GDP by about 12 billion euro per year. However its detractors point out that this agreement carries risks of watering down EU health and environmental requirements and making it less robust from a legal perspective. Notably, the finger is pointed at the investor state dispute resolution mechanism (ISDS). The principal fear is that the ISDS will enable investors to attack governments when government policy is no longer profitable for their businesses.
Henceforth the text is going to be examined by EU lawyers and translated into all the official EU languages. Then it will be sent to the European Council for signature. The next stage will be the vote granting the consent of the European Parliament for signature, and if necessary, approval of the parliaments of Members States.
