The European Commission will propose next week a simple approval procedure for a planned EU-Canada trade deal in a bid to speed up the adoption of an agreement seen as a controversial in many EU capitals.
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told EU leaders meeting on Tuesday that the Commission would make its proposal on July 5 that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) would be an "EU-only" agreement, an EU official said.
This would mean it would be adopted if backed by representatives of member states and by the European Parliament.
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Most European Union members have said they viewed the deal as a "mixed" agreement, meaning each country would have to push the deal through their parliaments, a move that would likely delay approval.
I'm confused by this. Recall that a while back, the Commission asked the ECJ for an opinion on this question: "Does the Union have the requisite competence to sign and conclude alone the Free Trade Agreement with Singapore?" I had heard that the ECJ was likely to issue a decision in the near future.
So why is the Commission taking a different approach with CETA? It sounds like, for CETA, the Commission is making its own judgement on its competence, without going to the ECJ, but perhaps there is something I've misunderstood here.