BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Parliament and EU member states’ national assemblies must approve a trade deal between the bloc and Canada before it can be adopted, a German Economy Ministry spokeswoman said on Friday.

“The federal government considers that CETA is a mixed agreement. This is not only the view of the federal government, it has also been expressed by the European Council and other member states,” the spokeswoman said.

“And therefore it is clear that without the approval of the European Parliament and the national parliament there could be no CETA,” she added, appearing to contradict European Commission plans for a simple approval procedure for the trade deal.

The European Commission will on July 5 propose that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) would be an “EU-only” agreement. This would mean it would be adopted if backed by representatives of member states and by the European Parliament.