Korcok: Agreement between EU and Canada Shouldn't Be Halted

Brussels/Bratislava, September 20 (TASR-correspondent) – The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada is balanced and accompanied by transparent negotiations that shouldn’t prevent the signing of the deal in any way, said Government Proxy for Slovakia’s Presidency of the Council of the EU Ivan Korcok after a session of the General Affairs Council in Brussels on Tuesday.

[The General Affairs Council brings together the foreign ministers of EU-member states. – ed. note]

CETA will also be discussed at an informal meeting of EU trade ministers in Bratislava this week. The EU-Canada summit is scheduled for the end of September, while the European Council summit that is to take place in October should include the agreement between the EU and Canada as one of its topics.

Korcok, who is also a state secretary at Slovakia’s Foreign and European Affairs Ministry, reported that two points of the Bratislava Roadmap – migration and trade policies – will feature at the European Council summit as well, as should relations between the EU and Russia.

[The Bratislava Roadmap emerged from the informal EU summit that took place in Bratislava on September 16. – ed. note]

EU ministers supported Bosnia and Herzegovina’s application for EU membership at Tuesday’s session. Korcok said that the ministers agreed that Bosnia is dutifully fulfilling the obligations that are a prerequisite for progress in accession negotiations.

EU-member states have for the first time made comments about the European Commission’s programme goals for 2017 and about its reassessment of the multiannual financial framework. Member states should now evaluate the proposal and draft a list of their own priorities.