Brussels - Today we met with Irish MEP Joe Higgins of the Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left.

It was a very good meeting in which Mr. Higgins highlighted the importance of popular mobilization in both Europe and Canada to defeat CETA.

We will also be working with his office to submit questions to the European Commission about CETA and the very real threat water privatization.

We also spoke to Mr. Higgins about coming to Canada to address our rally against CETA outside where the fifth round of talks will take place in Ottawa this coming October.

Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians
www.canadians.org

ICTSD reports that, "The European Commission recommended sweeping new changes to the European Union's policy on the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on Tuesday, unveiling a proposal to grant individual member states the right to decide for themselves whether to allow their domestic farmers to grow the altered crops."

The proposed "amendment would not give countries the right to ban imports of GM products or to prohibit the marketing of those seeds within their borders" and has raised the concern that "the European Commission would lean on EU member states to approve GM seeds at the bloc level..."

Brussels - Council of Canadians water campaigner Meera Karunananthan knocked on the doors of MEPs at the European Parliament this afternoon to build support for the UN resolution on the right to water and sanitation.

Two MEPs, plus staff from Jose Bove's office, have agreed to receive our letter in front of the European Parliament tomorrow morning at 10 am local time (4 am EST).

The letter calls on the EU to support the historic UN resolution which the General Assembly will vote on July 27.

Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians
www.canadians.org

Brussels - We just met with Catherine Bearder, a British MEP with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (which has 85 seats in the European Parliament), who raised questions this past April about CETA and the Canadian tar sands.

On April 19, 2010, Ms. Bearder posed these two questions to the European Commission:

1. "How does the Commission propose that trade relations between the EU and Canada should in no way promote or facilitate the development of this highly polluting industry?"
2. "Can the Commission confirm that the EU-Canada FTA will cover trade in this type of oil and how does the Commission justify this in the light of EU environmental priorities?"

Brussels - Yesterday evening we met with Steve Verheuil, Canada's chief negotiator on the CETA deal, along with other DFAIT staff at the hotel where the Canadian delegation is housed.

Verheuil gave us an overview of the first several days of this fourth round of talks and noted that government procurement issues would need to be discussed on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

He indicated that there were areas that had already been settled, areas where there were challenges, and highlighted a few key priorities for the EU.
He noted that negotiators had agreed on eliminating 90 percent of the tariffs between Canada and the EU and were working on the other 10 percent.

Some of the challenges include:

Brussels - Yesterday afternoon we met with Gerard Choplin and Lidia Senra of European Coordination Via Campesina.

We met to explore our common concerns, learn about the issues we are each working on, understand how CETA relates to these issues, and to see if we can work together and support each other.

They raised with us the European Union's intention to phase-out a milk quota system that benefits European farmers by 2015, and the European Commission's support for GMOs.

We highlighted the Canadian government's agenda to eliminate European regulatory barriers against genetically modified organisms, and our successful - but always under threat - orderly marketing/ supply-management systems for milk, poultry and eggs.

Brussels - A Canadian delegation opposing CETA met today with Stephen Hughes, a British Member of the European Parliament and the deputy leader of the Socialist Party at the EP.

Also present at the meeting were representatives of the European Public Services Union and GMB, Britain's General Union.

At the start of the meeting, Hughes expressed his concerns with Canada continuing to export asbestos around the world. The suggestion was made that some conditionality on the EU signing CETA could be Canada stopping its asbestos exports. (We will be following up on this.)

Council of Canadians trade campaigner Stuart Trew, water campaigner Meera Karunananthan, and I have now departed for Brussels (by way of Montreal and Amsterdam) for a week-long intervention against the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

We will be joined there by Larry Brown of the National Union of Public and General Employees, Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and Claude Vaillancourt and Catherine Caron of ATTAC-Quebec.

While in Brussels we will meet with numerous Members of the European Parliament, build links with European civil society, and discuss our concerns with the Canadian negotiators working on this deal.