site.btaSofia Officially Makes Signing of EU-Canada Trade Deal Conditional on Scrapping Canada Visas for Bulgarians

Sofia Officially Makes Signing of EU-Canada Trade Deal Conditional on Scrapping Canada Visas for Bulgarians

Sofia, October 19 (BTA) - Deciding its position for an upcoming European Council in Brussels, the Bulgarian government said that it will only sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada in exchange for irreversible guarantees from the Canadian government that visa requirements will be scrapped for all Bulgarian citizens.

The European Council will be held October 20 and 21 to focus on migration, trade issues, including the ongoing talks on trade deals with Canada and Japan, and relations between the EU and Russia, among others.

"This is the only approach that would allow Bulgaria to take advantage as an equal partner of the agreements reached, and will make sure Bulgarian economic entities enjoy level playing ground with those from the other Member States and Canada," the government said in a statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Parliament voted down a motion by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party - Left Bulgaria to require of the government to prepare and submit to the legislature an assessment of the impact from the possible signing of CETA. GERB's Djema Grozdanova, who heads the parliamentary foreign policy committee, argued that the negotiations on the CETA terms ended in September 2014.

Bulgaria and Romania have not yet withdrawn their reservations to CETA in expectation of a deal with the Canadian government to lift visa requirements for their citizens, and Belgium is blocking the signing due to opposition from the regional authorities in Wallonia.

A breakthrough is expected this coming Friday or else the signing of the trade deal scheduled for October 27, may be called off.

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BTA's Brussels correspondent Nickolay Jeliazkov has contributed to this story.