EU-Canada : Uncertainty hanging over CETA

Background

Speaking to the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA) on 3 September, Italy's Vice-Minister for Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, warned against re-opening the CETA chapter on protection of investments. "We [the member states] gave the Commission a mandate to negotiate the agreement. Now that the negotiations have been concluded, it is difficult to say that we've changed our minds and want to rediscuss things," he said. A few days later, Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who was in Washington, was perfectly clear: "This is a good agreement. If someone wants to destroy it, that's his problem. I've done my job". The commissioner also recognised that the inclusion of ISDS in the trade agreement makes it a mixed competence agreement (EU and member states have shared competence and national parliaments must consequently also ratify it).