Martin SCHULZ, EP President meets with Paul MAGNETTE, Minister President of Wallonia, in the EP in Brussels, and they express themselves&nbsp;following their meeting the free trade deal between the European Union and Canada (CETA).

Brussels

statement

press point

SCHULZ, Martin (S&D, DE)

EU - Belgium (T)

Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (T)

EU - Canada (T)

MAGNETTE, Paul (BE)

Statements by Martin SCHULZ, EP President and by Paul MAGNETTE, Minister-President of Wallonia following their meeting

SOUNDBITE (French), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, The negotiations, from the Canadian side were concluded. The Canadians, with Mrs FREELAND, confirmed once again their will to find a solution with us, the Europeans, as the remaining problems are problems whithin the European Union. So the Canadians &ndash; to be very clear &ndash; explained that for them the negotiations are closed, so we can go to the signing of the Treaty, and after go to open the ratification procedure. The problems remaining are European problems. We have discussed those problems. In my eyes there are no problems that cannot be solved. So we have discussed which way is the best for solving those problems.The representatives of the concerned service from the European Commission were present here this morning. They are available to answer any open question concerning the European administration.

SOUNDBITE (French), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, So I conclude this morning's debate by considering that this is the beginning of transforming this process into a victory for all the participants. I&rsquo;m very optimist that for the CETA we will find solutions that will further improve this project of an international Trade Treaty &ndash; which is already very good &ndash; and the clarifications we will find will help us also to obtain more trust in this process.

SOUNDBITE (French), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, I think that (the meetings we have had) this morning were very useful for us to find out finally the possibility to adopt the International Trade Treaty with Canada. This will give, on one side, an answer to the need to introduce rules in the international trade which will answer, on the other side, to our citizens concerns.

SOUNDBITE (French), Paul MAGNETTE, Minister-President of Wallonia, First of all I want to really thank Martin Schulz for his initiative. Europe is a bit complicated. From time to time there are small difficulties, and luckily it is the European Parliament &ndash; that means the institution directly elected by the European citizens &ndash; that is interceding for finding solution to problems which are of a large concern to the European citizens. I also want to express all my gratitude to our Canadian partners, for their great patience, patience for the time we need to solve out interior, European problems. I'm happy that all we have discussed with our Canadian friends can lead to an agreement, and that the parts concerning the Canadian side were concluded and that the discussions we have had together were very useful and have already allowed to greatly improve the text.

SOUNDBITE (French), Paul MAGNETTE, Minister-President of Wallonia, We still have some small difficulties between Europeans &ndash; we cannot hide that &ndash; so we still need to work and discuss in the nearest future. Discuss, not in order to create problems, it is important to be correctly understood, I'm not here to create problems, on the contrary, I'm here to make things going in such a way so as to have treaties with a feasible protection at social level, or concerning the public service, or concerning environment. So to have a level of judicial guarantee which is to be the highest in the world, and so that it will become tomorrow the standard that EU will defend in all bilateral negotiations. It is an issue that I think is worth having, so therefore its worth to take a bit of time so as to allow to finish the parliamentarian procedures which have been started.