According to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, it is frustrating for Hungary that no agreement has been reached on the planned Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada in Belgium’s French-speaking Walloon Region.
In an interview for Canadian CNBC television, the Hungarian Foreign Minister explained that the negotiations have been going on for seven years and it was obvious to Budapest that the agreement would be successfully concluded following such drawn-out negotiations that have cleared-up the various doubts and concerns. “This should have happened last Tuesday”, he stressed.
According to Mr. Szijjártó, the situation goes against the interests of the European Union, because one of the few successful areas of common European policy is trade. “Who should we conclude a free trade agreement with if not Canada?”, he asked.
Citing the global inter-regional competition for trade and economic integration, the Minister said that in his opinion if Europe is incapable of properly participating in this competition then it will fall behind and “its competitiveness will also be lost”.
He also stressed that the concerns raised during the course of negotiations had been successfully dissipated. “It has transpired that the GMO-free status of our agriculture is sustainable and that all measures required to ensure that we can maintain our food safety standards will also be realised”, he said.
“Given a situation in which Russia is organising the Eurasian Economic Union, the countries of the Gulf region are extremely active and China is organising a comprehensive regional partnership, while the European Union isolates itself, it will be incapable of meeting the challenges”, he said. According to Mr. Szijjártó, this is the worst possible answer that Europe can provide to the challenges it faces.
Following the negotiations on Monday, Minister-President of Wallonia Paul Magnette announced that Belgium’s Walloon Region remains unagreed with regard to the signing of the planned free trade agreement between the European Union and Canada. In reply to a question from reporters during a press conference on Monday, European Commission Chief Spokesperson Margaritis Schinas announced that the Brussels body would not be setting and deadline and would wait patiently until a decision is made in Wallonia.
According to previous reports, Thursday’s planned EU-Canada summit was to be postponed if no decision was made, but Canadian Minister of Trade Chrystia Freeland announced on Monday evening that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be travelling to Brussels on Thursday as planned.
The President of the Council of the European Union wrote on Twitter on Monday evening that he had spoken to the Canadian Prime Minister by telephone and they had both agreed that there was still time to find a solution to the problem.
The other twenty-seven Member States of the European Union are ready to sign the free trade agreement, as too is the Belgian Federal Government, but the latter’s state system also requires the approval of Wallonia. According to the French-speaking region with 3.5 million inhabitants, in its current form the CETA would be damaging to European agriculture and would increase the influence of multinational corporations. However, many are accusing the Wallonian leadership of obstructing the treaty for domestic political purposes.