Climate veto, a bone of contention at Ceta

What could be more normal than in the heat of the heat, in the center of the Chamber of the National Assembly, the spirits are warming up. Especially when it comes to voting, Tuesday, July 23, the controversial free trade treaty between the EU and Canada, better known as Ceta. It must be said that the stakes are high: the document should govern the new trade rules between Canada and the European Union for the years to come, since the French members have approved the text of the law.

>> Read: Five things to know about the controversial agreement of Ceta

Among the points of disagreement on the document of more than 2,300 pages, some parliamentarians fear that meat fed by animal meal prohibited in France or raised with antibiotics and growth hormones (or all three) are found on the Hexagon, despite the European standards that prohibit them. But another point particularly crystallizes the passions: that of the climate veto.

Very small majority for the #CETA! The political warning is clear and clear: if the next trade agreements do not respect more the climate, the biodiversity and our farmers, they will not pass! #directAN pic.twitter.com/poCM9KLBxQ

The climatic veto, a condition sine qua non

The climate veto is a legal provision that allows the European Union and Canada to protect state environmental or climate decisions from governments in the event of corporate legal attacks. To understand this measure, it is necessary to come back to the "investments" aspect of the Treaty: a special court gives the possibility to companies to sue a Member State of the European Union or Canada if it votes a law or reform that would undermine the company's economic investment plans. Concretely, if France passes a law that prohibits glyphosate on its territory, a Canadian company that sells this herbicide to France can sue the French State in court on the pretext that it hinders the investment of the Canadian company .

To prevent this kind of blockage, the commission, chaired by Katheline Schubert, who drafted the free trade treaty, had therefore provided for a climate veto, a sort of secret boot that gives a state the possibility to stop the proceedings in this jurisdiction. whether the reform initiated by one of the States concerned ecology. The former Minister of Ecology, Nicolas Hulot, had even made this safeguard, at the time he was in government, a condition sine qua non for the ratification of Ceta.

"Yes to Greta, yes to CETA!" Answers @JBLemoyne to the opponents of the treaty with Canada. "We have obtained that the 'climate veto' is written in black and white, (...) this will allow no company can attack our standards," says the minister. #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/s2NfZChbqB

Problem, a new version of the "climate veto" has been written since by the government and no longer includes a binding aspect. In its latest version, it is indeed only a "notice" issued by a joint commission, not a decision issued by a court. In other words, a company selling glyphosate to France, which will have previously prohibited, can continue to trade on the Hexagon despite an unfavorable opinion.

No certainty

A measure that puts NGOs and environmental associations on the rise. "There is no climate veto: it will not be possible to derogate from the rules of international trade, in the name of the principle of non-discrimination of investors for example", protests on his Twitter account Maxime Combes, holder Attac's word.

"This vote in favor of #CETA is a marker of the five-year period: here again illustrates the manifest, continuous and obstinate refusal of the executive and the majority to give priority to the climate, ecological, social and health emergency"

The jurist Sabrina Robert-Cuendet, one of the nine experts of the treaty's assessment commission, behind the idea of ​​the climate veto, also did not hide her disappointment when she read the final text presented. to the press on July 9th. "The chosen mechanism does not allow us to have the absolute certainty that climate measures will not be attacked in the context of Ceta," she explained in the columns of Le Monde, July 16.

This aspect of the text is so important that some deputies, like the former spokesman for Nicolas Hulot, Matthieu Orphelin, have even assured a few days before his presentation to Parliament that a climate veto in good and due form could weigh in the balance the day of the vote.

The other bone of contention is the mixed commission that gives its opinion. For an opinion to be given, it is still necessary for the assembly composed of representatives of Canada and the EU to decide unanimously. But can we expect half of Canadian members to ignore the economic interests of their national businesses? We can wonder.

Walkers scattered in nature

At this stage, we do not know the list of representatives of this commission: it is therefore unknown what their motives for economic interests, or even their environmental ambitions.

Despite the all-out criticism, the French government ensures that "products banned at the entrance of the EU will remain, the Ceta does not change anything," said on Twitter Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State for Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, who defended the text in the Assembly. "An agreement like the #Ceta contains clauses which allow a better protection of the environment and a better taking into account of the norms, the labels, the AOCs, the IGP." It is a better one compared to the agreements of the # WTO! "continued the Secretary of State in another tweet.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Canadian government of Justin Trudeau has always shown its ambitions in terms of the environment. But there is no guarantee that the future head of the executive will be sensitive to these issues. The leader of the Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, who could succeed the current head of government, is not known for his ecologist fiber.

It is unclear for the moment whether this treaty will create tensions between Canada and the European Union, or even if it will have the risks decried for the environment. But one thing is certain, the Ceta, approved with justice in Parliament, has already made hash in the ranks of the majority. Only 229 macronists approved it on Tuesday, out of 304 members of the group. Never-seen among walkers since the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017.