Trade Agreements: National parliaments must a say in Ceta – ZEIT ONLINE

Vote The Bundestag and other national EU parliaments are now but over the already negotiated FTAs ​​with the EU Canada (Ceta). The EU Commission decided to depart from its previous line and classify the agreement as a so-called mixed agreement. That gave EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström announced in Strasbourg.

The Commission is indeed still believes that it was legally speaking about an agreement which falls solely under the EU’s competence, Malmström said. However, they wear the criticism from some Member States. The Commission therefore propose that a new method: the national parliaments should be involved in the ratification process. At the same time, however, the Agreement should already occur “provisionally” in force when it has been approved by the EU and adopted by the European Parliament.

had on the EU summit last week President Jean- Claude Juncker yet said the authority see Ceta as pure EU agreements and would therefore no co-decision at national level. A vote in the EU Parliament was sufficient Juncker had indicated. This announcement, however, was met with massive protest in the Member States. Federal Minister of Economics and SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel called about the attitude of the European Commission then “incredibly stupid”. If the Commission in this previous trade agreements so, then was “TTIP dead,” Gabriel said. The FTA with the US is content even more controversial than Ceta.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has already announced, to deal in any case the Bundestag with the decision. may be amended to the Commission’s decision but only by a unanimous decision in the Council of the EU member states.

The Free Trade Agreement with Canada has been negotiated by the European Commission in secrecy. The text was published after the negotiations, coupled with the addition that now nothing could change it. After the criticism, however, not demolition, the Commission improved again after.

Even the now present Draft, however, regarded by many as problematic. To warn about the head of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), Reiner Hoffmann, and the chairman of the Canadian Labour Congress (CDC), Hassan Yussuff, before that the agreements adversely affecting the workers.

Ceta shall be ratified at an EU-Canada summit in October. Whether this timetable can be adhered to, is open. With the European Commission’s decision, it is likely that the already ausverhandelte agreement is rejected by one of the parliaments.