Seizing the moment: Regional opportunity structures and Wallonia’s temporary veto of the EU–Canada bilateral trade agreement

ABSTRACT

Constitutionally, Belgium represents the most extreme case of regional entities wielding power over EU external trade policymaking. Formally, the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels regions can wield veto power over Belgian positions. Yet, only once has a Belgian region actually made use of this capacity, when Wallonia temporarily blocked the conclusion of the EU trade agreement with Canada in 2016 (CETA). We show that political actors – legislative and executive – could only activate this constitutional possibility in conjunction with other necessary conditions: a high degree of societal mobilization and, above all, inter-party competition across different levels of government. As the Walloon Parti Socialiste seized the moment, it reinforced the paradox of weakness and strengthened the EU’s trade bargaining power towards Canada. We finish by discussing the spill-over effects of the 2016 CETA episode into the shaping of future EU trade policies, as well as into future intra-Belgian EU policymaking.

KEYWORDS:

• Federalism
• Belgium
• European Union
• EU external trade policy
• CETA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Only very recently have member states allowed the EU to conclude a preferential trade agreement with a third country under exclusive competences, not requiring national parliamentary approval. The investment chapters of the EU-Singapore agreement in 2018 and the EU-Vietnam agreement in 2019, which are subject to mandatory national parliamentary ratification, were ‘split of’ and are awaiting arduous ratification procedures (Van der Loo and Hahn 2020, 11).

2 Member states may even do this purposely on beforehand so as to secure their veto rights in the ratification stage (Meunier and Roederer-Rynning 2020).

3 Almost 75% of Belgian export to Canada originates from Flanders (https://www.flandersinvestmentandtrade.com/export/landen/canada/cijfers).

4 http://arbitrationblog.kluwerarbitration.com/2019/04/30/opinion-117-the-cjeu-confirms-that-cetas-investment-court-system-is-compatible-with-eu-law/?doing_wp_cron=1595331183.9950110912322998046875