CETA, a free trade treaty between the European Union and Canada, is “a very good agreement” for French agriculture, President Emmanuel Macron declared from Brussels on Friday, the day after the French Senate rejected the ratification of this agreement.
Citing the benefits of the agreement for the French “milk”, “cheese” or “wine” sectors, the Head of State called for not “putting all free trade agreements in the same bag”. . “It’s demagoguery,” he again denounced during a press conference following a European Council.
“The figures show [le] considerable success” of CETA, also commented the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference on Friday. She said she took “note” of the senatorial vote, and called to see “how France would deal” with this result.
A coalition of senators from the right and the left, at the initiative of elected communist officials, succeeded Thursday in putting to a vote the ratification bill that the French government had until now never included on the chamber’s agenda. high.
The operation, concluded by the rejection of CETA, is a setback for the French government, in the midst of an agricultural crisis and a few months before the European elections.
“People who today fight it hand on heart are the ones who signed it and everyone forgets that we have greatly improved it,” criticized the head of state. The treaty was concluded during the presidency of socialist François Hollande (2012-2017).
“Those who could take resolutions against CETA would be Canadians with us,” said the head of state. He recalled that the Senate vote “has no consequences on the provisional implementation of CETA”, effective since 2017 at European level.
The communist deputies announced on Thursday that they wanted to submit the text on May 30 for examination by the National Assembly, where the presidential camp does not have an absolute majority, but the government seems to want to procrastinate.
“We will continue to work towards ratification […] with our partners in the EU in order to advance our common strategic interests,” the Canadian government responded on Thursday.