2016-10-06 10:46 update: 2018-09-27, 01:54
Warszawa, 05.10.2016. Widok na salę obrad, podczas drugiego dnia posiedzenia Sejmu, 5 bm. (zuz) Fot. PAP/Jacek Turczyk
Oppositionists Nowoczesna Party and Civic Platform (PO) Wednesday backed the ratification by Poland of the EU's CETA free trade agreement with Canada. Ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) posed conditions for the ratification.
Oppositionists Kukiz'15 and Polish People's Party (PSL) underscored the threats accompanying the CETA accord.
The ratification act will be returned to the Sejm (lower house) EU affairs committee which authored it after PiS lodged an amendment making the ratification dependent on a qualified majority vote. PiS also set several conditions for the ratification, including the presence of a Pole on an arbitration tribunal planned as a litigation organ for the CETA sides and the Canadian side's adherence to agricultural product sale quotas.
PiS's Dominik Tarczynski said the party will not ratify CETA if any of its conditions are not met.
PO declared its support for the agreement and its temporary implementation until all the EU members ratified it. The party's Marcin Swiecicki stressed that CETA carried no threats to Polish farmers.
Also Nowoczesna spoke positively about the accord, stressing the benefits connected with free trade and its positive influence on the EU economy.
Kukiz'15 questioned PiS's demand for a Pole on the CETA arbitration court, remarking that as a member of the bench the Pole "would cease to be a Pole" as his decisions would have to be objective.
"So it doesn't matter one way or the other whether there's a Pole there or not", the party's Grzegorz Dlugi observed.
Kukiz'15 opposed the agreement's partial application suggested earlier by deputy Development Minister Radoslaw Domagalski-Labedzki, warning that this could enable the act's permanent adoption by the EU Council and the European Parliament. Also the Polish People's Party (PSL) voiced objections to the agreement's partial introduction.
According to PSL, CETA will be detrimental to Polish farmers and food quality. Party leader Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz suggested that the condition for its introduction should be its "full ratification" by the Polish parliament.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada foresees the almost total abolition of customs and other barriers in bilateral trade. The agreement's signature is foreseen during October's EU-Canada summit. (PAP)
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