Wallonia digs in over investment court in Canada deal

Wallonia’s Minister-President Paul Magnette said today that he is still unable to support a landmark trade deal between the EU and Canada because of concerns over a legal framework through which investors will be able to sue governments.

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Magnette’s continued opposition to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Brussels and Ottawa will come as a crippling disappointment to EU and Canadian diplomats, who have been trying to broker a compromise over the past few days.

Magnette said some of Wallonia’s fears had been addressed but added that the division of responsibilities between the jurisdiction of national courts and the supranational court system in CETA remained too opaque.

“There remain difficulties with the court system,” he said at a news conference in the Walloon parliament.

Wallonia has also been calling for the discussions not to be rushed, regarding an EU-Canada summit on October 27 as an artificial deadline. The deal was seven years in the making.

“We have time constraints,” he said. “It’s that, at this stage, even if I plead, plead, plead that in a totally amicable way we could agree to push back the Europe-Canada summit and take time to examine things, up until now, I can’t manage to convince them on this point of view.”