The Senate largely rejects the Ceta free trade treaty between the European Union and Canada

In an extremely tense climate, senators rejected by 211 votes to 44 article 1 of the bill relating to this treaty, applied provisionally since 2017.

The Senate opposed, Thursday March 21, the ratification of the Ceta free trade treaty between the European Union and Canada by a first vote in the hemicycle thanks to a left-right alliance of circumstance, without certainty nevertheless that the examination of the text is completed within the allotted time.

In an extremely tense climate, senators rejected by 211 votes to 44 article 1 of the bill relating to this treaty, applied provisionally since 2017 but never submitted to the upper house. This vote will nevertheless only be confirmed if the Senate completes the examination of this ratification bill within a very short period of time on Thursday.

In the event of senatorial refusal, a new examination of the text will take place in the National Assembly, with a strong risk of rejection since the government does not have an absolute majority. “The communist group in the Assembly is ready to put the text on May 30 in its parliamentary niche”, declared on LCI the national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, welcoming “a very broad republican arc from the left and the right to say no to this treaty”. If MEPs in turn reject ratification, the treaty could theoretically be revoked throughout the EU, as this article explains.

A “denial of democracy”

Signed in 2016, adopted in 2017 at the European level, Ceta was narrowly validated in the National Assembly in 2019. But the government never referred it to the Senate, a necessary step in the process. “Since 2019, the government has continued its denial of democracy by refusing to include it here,” the communist Fabien Gay was indignant.

Environmentalists, socialists and a large part of the senatorial right, the first group in the Senate, are in fact opposed to this treaty. “There was once again contempt for the Senate and Parliament and we have not forgotten that,” points out the leader of the Republicans, Bruno Retailleau.

Ceta, which notably eliminates customs duties on 98% of products traded between the European Union and Canada, is strongly criticized, in particular by French breeders who report meat imports at cost prices much lower than theirs and with less strict methods than those to which they are subject.