Barlow challenging CETA and TTIP at Malmö University in Sweden, September 9. Photo by Fredrik Björk.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow is now in Europe for a key push against the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Trade campaigner Sujata Dey will arriving in Brussels a few weeks from now for the Canada-European Union summit where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to sign the controversial deal.
The key upcoming dates in the ratification process for CETA include:
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September 19 – Canadian trade minister Chrystia Freeland will speak in favour of CETA at the German Social Democratic Party convention in Berlin -
September 22 – European Union member state trade ministers meet in Bratislava, Slovakia to discuss the provisional application of CETA -
October 28-29 – Trudeau is scheduled to be in Brussels to sign CETA -
November 29 – European Parliament International Trade Committee expected to vote on CETA -
December/January – CETA could go to the European Parliament for a plenary ratification vote -
January – 90 per cent of CETA could be implemented if provisional application of the deal is unanimously approved by the Council of the European Union this fall (and subsequently by the European Parliament)
Barlow has been in Sweden and Denmark speaking against CETA this past week. On September 7, Barlow spoke at a sold-out conference inside the Christiansborg Palace (the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Supreme Court) in Copenhagen. On September 17, she will be at the massive anti-CETA rally in Stuttgart, Germany. More than 30,000 people are expected to be at that protest.
Dey will be in Brussels from October 17-29. That intervention will see her participating in various events including:
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October 17-21 – The European-wide campaign against TTIP, CETA and TiSA are calling for a week of actions called CETA Week -
October 20 – Citizens Summit: A Transatlantic Gathering of Local & Public Representatives at the European Parliament -
October 28-29 – to-be-planned activities challenging the CETA signing ceremony
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Trade Unionist Network Europe (TUNE) in making Dey’s travel to Europe possible.
Other activities during these critical months:
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October 13-14 – anti-globalization activist and Member of the European Parliament Jose Bove speaking in Toronto, Montreal and St. John’s -
November 28-December 10 – Dey may be speaking on a 7-country tour about our new report on the impacts of CETA on European food safety -
December/January – Blue Planet Project campaigner Meera Karunananthan will be collaborating on a report on the impacts of CETA on public water services
The Council of Canadians first began challenging CETA in October 2008. Our first intervention at the European Parliament took place in July 2010 and over the years we have participated in at least a dozen different delegations to speak with European officials in opposition to this deal. For more on this campaign, please click here.