Prof. Ramses Wessel attends expert meeting Dutch Senate on CETA

An expert meeting on the EU-Canada Free Trade Agreement (CETA) was held at the Senate of the Dutch Parliament on Tuesday 19 May. Prof. Ramses Wessel , professor of European law, attended the meeting and stated that there are no legal reasons for not agreeing to the so-called Investment Court System set up by the treaty.

In the position paper that he prepared for the meeting, he states that the criticism of CETA is not based on facts. Wessel concludes that most of the subjects in this treaty do not fall within the competence of the EU member states and that the Dutch parliament should therefore exercise restraint, especially since the European Parliament has already approved the treaty.

CETA contains important improvements compared to previous trade agreements, especially when it comes to protecting sustainability, labour and the environment. The Investment Court System (a novelty) also does justice to the fundamental and constitutional guarantees that apply within the European Union for legal protection. The latter was also determined by the Court of Justice of the EU in April 2019 following a thorough analysis of CETA.

Both streams of the meetings on 12 and 19 May can be viewed via the website of the Dutch Senate.

This article was published by the Faculty of Law.