Anti-Ceta protesters outside the Walloon parliament in Namur, Belgium, last week. Photograph: Nicolas Lambert/AFP/Getty Images

The EU’s hopes of signing a free-trade agreement with Canada this week are on a knife-edge after Belgium announced it could not sign the treaty because of opposition from regional parliaments.



The collapse of the negotiations in Belgium highlights the pitfalls that may await the British government when it seeks to negotiate a trade deal with the EU after Brexit.

The Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, announced on Monday that Belgium was not ready to sign the EU-Canada trade pact, following emergency talks between the country’s federal and regional leaders.



Despite the Belgian stalemate, Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, did not immediately postpone a trip to Brussels this Thursday, where he is due to sign the treaty.



Donald Tusk, the head of the European council, said he and Trudeau thought Thursday’s summit was still possible. “We encourage all parties to find a solution. There’s yet time,” Tusk tweeted after speaking to the Canadian leader.

A key ally of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, added his support. Manfred Weber, the leader of the centre-right European People’s party, said the trade deal was not dead. “Everything should be done to make it enter into force. All concerns have been tackled. Everyone should help.”

Tusk had given Belgium a deadline of Monday night to sort out its problems, but emergency talks in Brussels in the afternoon showed that the treaty remained stuck.

Walloon minister-president Paul Magnette has led opposition to the deal. Photograph: Laurie Dieffembacq/Belga/Rex/Shutterstock

Paul Magnette, Wallonia’s minister-president, who has led opposition to the deal, said his position had not changed, as he left the intra-Belgian negotiations. He had failed to show up for crisis talks with the European commission on Sunday, according to Michel.



“The response of the Walloon government did not surprise us in view of the politics of the empty chair yesterday,” Michel said. “We have been confronted with an empty chair yesterday and silence from the Walloon representatives this morning.”

The EU and Canada have spent more than seven years preparing the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta), but the treaty has stumbled near the finish line because of opposition from the Socialist-led parliament in Wallonia.



The trade treaty would eliminate nearly all tariffs between the EU and Canada. But Walloon leaders worry they are being pressed into an unequal bargain that disadvantages their farmers against Canadian beef and pork producers.

Walloon politicians have denounced pressure on them to sign the treaty. Tusk’s ultimatum was not serious, the president of the Walloon parliament, André Antoine, told TV station RTBF. “We want to bring back law and democracy to these great treaties that affect the daily life of our citizens.”



Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois said: ‘We’re the laughing stock of the whole world’. Photograph: Laurie Dieffembacq/Belga/ Rex/Shutterstock

Belgian politicians who support Ceta questioned why Walloon critics raised their concerns so late in the day. “We have had the texts since April 2014,” said Geert Bourgeois, the minister-president of Flanders.



Bourgeois, a member of the centre-right separatist party New Flemish Alliance, described the failure of the talks as a real shame. “We’re the laughing stock of the whole world. It’s bad for Wallonia, for Flanders, for Belgium, for Europe, for the whole world.”

Belgium’s unique constitutional arrangements mean trade treaties must be approved by six assemblies. In an embarrassing snub to the EU, the Brussels capital region, home to the EU institutions, also rejected the treaty, as did Belgium’s Francophone federation. Flanders, Belgium’s German-speaking regional parliament and Belgium’s federal government support the treaty.

EU trade treaties can only enter into force with unanimous agreement of all 28 member states.

A spokesperson for the European commission, which is responsible for negotiating EU trade agreements, said it stood “ready to continue assisting whenever needed in this process”.

“Belgium is still in the process of establishing its position through its relevant institutional procedures and in line with its constitutional order. We of course respect these. Patience is of the essence.”

The commission has suggested that talks will continue later in the year. “The commission does not tend to work with ultimatums or deadlines,” the spokesperson said, in an implicit criticism of Tusk’s approach.

The problems nailing down a trade treaty with a close ally of Europe have put officials in deep gloom and raised doubts about future pacts with the US and China.

Even if Belgium patches up its differences over Ceta, that would not be the end of the story. Following agreement among 28 governments, the trade treaty would come into force on a temporary basis. But it could only become a permanent legal text after ratification by 28 national parliaments and 10 regional assemblies and upper houses.

Critics say the European commission, which is responsible for negotiating trade agreements, has ceded too much power to national parliaments. The growing role of national assemblies means that Belgium’s German-speaking parliament, representing 76,000 people, could, in theory, block a trade agreement between the EU and the UK.

British officials have played down similarities, arguing that putting up trade barriers will be a very different exercise to taking them down. Chris Grayling, a pro-leave minister, has said he does not fear a veto from the Walloon parliament because Britain buys “a whole load of produce from Walloon farmers” and tariffs would not be in their interest.

That optimism appeared to be given some credibility by Merkel, who suggested on Friday that she did not see a parallel between Ceta and future talks with the UK.