Supreme Court Rules Parliament Ratification Of EU-Canada CETA Unlawful

Ireland's Supreme Court has ruled this morning that the ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada by the Irish Oireachtas (parliament) is unlawful, potentially paving the way for a public referendum on the deal.

• The case was brought by a Green member of the lower house (Dail Eireann) who raised concerns about the Irish gov'ts ability to introduce environmental regulations under CETA. The court ruled 4-3 that under current law the parliament did not have the right to ratify CETA. In a separate 6-1 decision, the court ruled that if the Arbitration Act 2010 were altered then parliament could ratify CETA.
• The deal, intended to boost trade and investment between the EU and Canada came into force provisionally in 2017, but has yet to be ratified by all 27 member states as is required for the agreement to be fully implemented.
• Irish opponents of CETA are calling for a public referendum on the deal, a move that would risk opening up a notable political schism in Ireland and could result in some blowback from the EU (even though 10 states including Germany and France have yet to ratify CETA and the Cypriot parliament has voted against ratification).