The Président of the Walloon parliament, André Antoine (of the Humanist Democratic Centre), considers that it will not be possible to abide by Monday's ultimatum. This was fixed by the European Council to sign the free trade treaty between the E.U. and Canada (CETA - the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement).
Mr Antoine stated on Bel-RTL, “It will not be possible for us to keep to the ultimatum.”
The centrist deputy is calling upon the authors of this treaty to place in logical order “this mish-mash of texts" which constitute it.”
This involves those between the treaty itself, its numerous annexes and its interpretative declarations, the e-mail exchanges and other aspects.
He added, “This is not serious.”
He said that it is simply necessary to undertake a codification exercise.
Furthermore, the President of the regional parliament still considers that Wallonia has taken nobody by surprise.
He recalled that on April 27th, after two years work, the assembly approved a detailed CETA resolution.
Mr Antoine warned the European Trade Commissioner in person of the problems which CETA risked posing, during a World Trade Organisation forum (WTO) forum in Geneva.
The Brussels Times
