Report of an emergency meeting

Belgian region Wallonia blocked the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU and leaders are now desperately trying to salvage it.

Reuters now reports, citing an unnamed EU source, that an emergency envoys meeting has been called for 1800 GMT (in less than 3 hours) to seek a resolution.

Belgium can't approve the deal unless all the regions are on board and Wallonia late yesterday said it won't proceed. That will force Belgium to miss Friday's ratification deadline. </s> BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The Belgian region of Wallonia rejected new amendments to a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement on Thursday, reaffirming its opposition and so threatening the entire deal, a flagship of European Union trade policy.

Demonstrators protest against CETA outside the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

All 28 EU governments support the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but Belgium cannot give assent without backing from five sub-federal administrations and French-speaking Wallonia has steadfastly opposed it.

Failure to strike a deal with such a like-minded country as Canada would call into question the EU’s ability to forge other deals and damage credibility already battered by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc and disputes over the migration crisis.

The moves came as leaders began a two-day EU summit in Brussels with trade policy the main topic set for Friday. European Council President Donald Tusk, chairing the summit, said in a tweet that the Europe’s credibility was at stake.

Wallonia is home to some 3.5 million people, less than 1 percent of the 507 million Europeans CETA would affect.

The European Commission, which negotiates trade deals for the bloc, offered new concessions in the form of changes to an EU declaration to be appended to the treaty. One EU diplomat said these sought to answer Walloon concerns about farming and how trade disputes with Canadian companies would be settled.

Walloon premier Paul Magnette called an emergency session of his government and was due to address the Walloon parliament on Friday. The government recognized improvements, but believed they did not go far enough, an official said, adding it needed time to reflect.

“At this stage, for us, the document is not sufficient,” Magnette told reporters in the regional capital Namur.

Magnette said he hoped to meet Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland again on Friday. The two met on Wednesday.

Related Coverage Juncker says EU working on getting Canada trade deal agreed Friday

“We’ll see how we can modify the text that we were given,” he added.

At the summit in Brussels, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “I am still hopeful that we will come to a good result in the course of the night and tomorrow morning.”

TRUDEAU TRIP

In Ottawa, an official confirmed Freeland would meet Magnette on Friday and said she was in constant contact with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom.

“This is now a question for the Europeans to decide,” said the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Canada’s Liberal government has shown increasing signs of impatience with the EU over challenges to a deal that supporters say will increase bilateral trade by 20 percent.

CETA is set to be signed at an EU-Canada summit next Thursday in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Tusk said the issue was greater than just a trade deal with Canada, the EU’s 12th largest trading partner. CETA would be the EU’s first agreement with a G7 country.

He told reporters there would be no public support for free trade if people could not be convinced that trade agreements were in their interests, adding: “Which means, I am afraid, that CETA could be our last free trade agreement.”

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Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, whose liberal-led coalition wants the deal, spoke of a looming “moment of truth”.

Wallonia’s lawmakers share concerns voiced by many on the European left that CETA, and a stalled plan for a similar deal with the United States, risk watering down consumer, labor and environmental protections. </s> Premier of the Belgian region of Wallonia Paul Magnette arrives to attend an emergency meeting of all Belgium federal entities on the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement in Brussels on Wednesday (AFP photo)

BRUSSELS — European leaders voiced hope for a breakthrough Wednesday in troubled negotiations for a landmark EU-Canada free trade deal, despite a word of caution from a Belgian region holding out on key terms.

Canadian and European Union leaders warn that the EU's international standing, already battered by Britain's shock June Brexit vote, will suffer another blow if seven years of trade negotiations go to waste because of internal Belgian politics.

However, EU leaders sounded optimistic that Belgium's federal government would finally win over holdouts in its French-speaking communities and endorse a deal that requires unanimous approval from all 28 EU member states.

Belgium's centre-right federal government as well as its Dutch-speaking and French-speaking community leaders, including those from the southern region of Wallonia, resumed the latest of many rounds of talks in Brussels in a bid to break the deadlock.

"I trust that an agreement will be reached in the course of today with Belgium, Wallonia and other parts of the country," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

But Juncker did not know if the deal would be reached in time to go ahead with a scheduled signing summit on Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president who would host the summit, told the European Parliament he hoped the agreement would be finalised soon.

"The summit tomorrow is still possible," Tusk added.

Tusk also warned that the EU would undermine its global standing "if we cannot make the case for free trade with a country like Canada, the most European country outside Europe and a close friend and ally".

The European Commission, the EU executive, and the European Council, which groups the member states, are pushing hard for the deal with Canada known as the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).

The pact would link the EU's single market of 500 million people — the world's biggest — with the 10th largest global economy in what would be the most ambitious such tie-up yet.

Hinging on the outcome are trade negotiations with other countries, including those with the United States which are also in difficulty.

Leaders of Wallonia, a 3.5 million-strong region south of Brussels, want guarantees CETA will not harm local interests.

Critics especially oppose terms of the deal intended to protect international investors which they say could allow them to force governments to change laws against the wishes of the people.

"There remain two important subjects, even if we have advanced on many things," the socialist head of Wallonia's government Paul Magnette told reporters Wednesday, referring to the investment clause and agriculture issues.

Magnette has repeatedly warned that he will break off the talks if he keeps receiving "ultimatums" to strike a quick deal.

If the Belgian talks reach consensus later Wednesday, the documents would have to be sent for review first to the ambassadors of the 28 EU member states and then back to the various layers of government, including the parliament in Wallonia.

CETA has become a lightning rod for growing popular opposition to international trade deals, chief among them the even more controversial EU-US trade deal called TTIP. </s> The head of Belgium’s small Wallonia region is rejecting a Friday deadline to sign up to a huge trade deal between Canada and the European Union, demanding a full renegotiation that could bring the whole transatlantic agreement down.

Wallonia President Paul Magnette said Wednesday that “we cannot sign by Friday,” when a two-day summit of EU government leaders is to end. It was set as a target day to get the last of the 28 EU nations on board.

Belgium can only back the deal if its regions, including Wallonia, approve it. Without unanimity among EU nations, the deal will collapse.

Magnette told TV network RTBF that despite progress over the past few days “it is insufficient. And you cannot say now: ‘you have 3 days to accept.”

His statement further clouds the fate of the so-called Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Wallonia — a francophone southern region in Belgium — has expressed concerns the deal could erode labour, environmental and consumer regulations.

Canadian European trade envoy Pierre Pettigrew told the Montreal Board of Trade on Tuesday that he remains hopeful the agreement will be approved later this week, despite snags that have stalled a critical vote on the deal.

Pettigrew — who was dispatched to meet with Magnette last week — said Canada has done everything it could to address any concerns within the EU, and now the ball is in its court.

“We have worked very hard in the last few months to bring reassurances that we in Canada share those same progressive views,” Pettigrew said.

EU nations were scheduled to vote on the deal Tuesday, but that was delayed after Magnette raised objections, saying he needs a few more days.

Pettigrew said the vote could happen as early as Thursday, when EU leaders kick off a two-day summit.

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who is no stranger to trade deals given his role as one of the architects of NAFTA, appeared unfazed by the dispute.

“Every once in a while you run into a hiccup in these things,” said Mulroney, who also spoke before the Montreal Board of Trade. “This is a hiccup, but I don’t think it’s going to derail such an important negotiation.”

International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada has made significant changes to the deal and remains “cautiously optimistic” that it will receive European approval.

“I am both hopeful and I also hope that Europe and Europeans can come together to make this decision, which is the right one for Canada and for Europe,” she said in Ottawa.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to fly to Brussels next week to sign the agreement should it be unanimously approved by the EU. </s> It was supposed to be the easy one. EU ministers were due to ratify an EU-Canada trade deal this week, seven years after negotiations began. But following a series of setbacks, it now appears that the deal – known as Ceta – may not be ready for ratification at next week’s EU-Canada summit.

Instead, the issue has been pushed on to an already packed agenda for the two-day EU leaders’ summit which starts today in Brussels. The issue now threatens to embarrass the EU, raising serious questions about its credibility as a trade partner. As Canada’s trade minister Chrystia Freeland put it: “If the EU cannot do a deal with Canada . . . who the heck can it do a deal with?”

Ceta’s troubles began this summer after the European Commission decided that the deal needed to be ratified by national parliaments as it was deemed to fall under national as well as EU competence.

The need for sign-off by up to 40 national and regional parliaments was bound to throw up challenges. It did. Though Germany’s parliamentary backing for the deal was a boost, last Friday the regional parliament of Wallonia, which represents 3.5 million French-speaking Belgians, voted against the deal. (Ireland signed off on the provisional application of the deal at last week’s cabinet meeting).

Legally, Belgium cannot proceed without the support of all five regional parliaments. Other countries have now jumped into the fray, with Romania and Bulgaria demanding visa-free access for its citizens to Canada, while lingering concerns remain about a German constitutional court judgment on the deal which suggests a potential opt-out for Germany

Diplomatic efforts last weekend failed to break the impasse, with the result that EU ministers arriving in Luxembourg on Tuesday for a specially-convened trade council had nothing to sign.

EU leaders, who had been scheduled to discuss trade on Friday morning, will now consider the Canadian conundrum. While ambassadors can technically sign off on the agreement before Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau leaves for Europe next Wednesday, Monday seems to be the last possible date for ratification.

In the meantime, Wallonia has indicated it is not for turning. The region’s president, Paul Magnette, on Wednesday called for a “few months” to reopen the negotiation. The small Belgian province has now become an unlikely champion of anti-trade campaigners across the globe.

The European Union is a master of compromise and an inventive solution may be found in the coming days to hide Europe’s blushes amid signs that Canada’s patience wears thin. But even if the agreement is salvaged, the Ceta controversy raises deeper questions about the future of EU trade policy. The disagreements over Ceta are part of a broader public unease about free trade shaping political debate from Berlin to Washington.

They have implications for TTIP, the transatlantic trade and investment partnership between the EU and the US, which is at a much less advanced stage. The bid to secure agreement by the end of US president Barack Obama’s tenure has essentially been abandoned. The German and French leaders are reluctant to back a deal that faces significant public opposition ahead of next year’s elections in those countries, while both US presidential candidates oppose TTIP in its present form. As one EU diplomat put it, the objective now is to “ensure a soft parking of TTIP before the end of the year”.

For critics of TTIP, the relatively late public mobilisation around Ceta shines an important light on issues that are common to both the US and Canadian trade deals. This includes the controversial investor protection proposals that allow foreign companies to sue countries.

“Both the EU and Canada are advanced democracies with highly developed court systems,” says Scott Sinclair, senior research fellow at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, “so why set up this parallel system of private justice which is only available to foreign investors?”

But supporters of the deal, who believe it will lead to lower prices and better access for consumers and businesses, fear that Europe’s current trade woes will damage the bloc’s competitiveness in the long term. Ireland was among the countries that welcomed the focus on trade at this week’s European Council, particularly given the imminent departure from the EU of Britain, one ofits strongest liberal economic voices.

Perhaps of most concern, however, are the implications of the Ceta controversy for Britain. The prospect of up to 40 parliaments having a veto on any future trade agreement between the EU and Britain does not bode well for Britain’s exit negotiations. As EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom put it this week: “If we can’t make it with Canada, I don’t think we can make it with the UK.”

It seems that a small regional parliament in Belgium may have given Theresa May a fresh headache. </s> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is predicting the stalled Canada-European Union trade deal will be wrapped up in the days ahead as efforts in Belgium to break a political deadlock spilled into Thursday – the very date the accord was supposed to be signed.

“We are confident that in the coming days we will see a positive outcome for this historic deal,” Mr. Trudeau told the House of Commons on Wednesday, a bold prediction that suggests the Prime Minister has received assurances that a breakthrough is near by European Union leaders.

The EU requires the assent of all 28 member nations to sign the deal. Politically decentralized Belgium has for weeks been unable to agree to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada because of opposition chiefly from the French-speaking region of Wallonia, whose regional government has a veto over international accords.

Related: Freeland’s CETA theatrics nothing less than calculated posturing

Related: What’s Wallonia’s deal? A primer on its role in CETA’s crisis

Talks in Brussels that adjourned late Wednesday between the central government and regions are seeking to hammer out conditions under which the regional governments would permit Belgium to green-light CETA.

Canada and the EU had long planned a splashy CETA signing summit on Thursday in Brussels, but International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland acknowledged that meeting was now cancelled.

“The Canadian delegation will not be travelling to Europe [Wednesday night]. Canada remains ready to sign this important agreement when Europe is ready,” a spokesman for Ms. Freeland said in a statement.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has been working with the heads of the country’s regions and linguistic communities to produce a document to allay concerns about agricultural imports and a dispute settlement system that critics say could be abused by multinationals to dictate public policy. One European Union diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said it’s envisioned the text dealing with these concerns would be attached to the deal.

The Canada-EU deal would eliminate duties on tens of thousands of products, covering more than 95 per cent of everything Canada now sells to Europe, and dismantle many non-tariff barriers to commerce. It would give Canada’s auto assemblers and beef and pork producers significant access to EU markets.

Wallonia’s chief problem remains the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism that gives Canadian and European companies a mechanism for suing each other’s governments for decisions that affect their investments.

The Liberal government has said all week that it’s up to Europe to resolve its impasse.

The internal Belgian compromise that is emerging however may not be to Canada’s liking. It outlines Belgian legislators’ refusal to ratify a deal with the existing investor-state dispute settlement provision, one the Trudeau government had already significantly watered down in negotiations.

There are three stages for the EU to approve and pass CETA. The first is for all 28-member countries to agree to sign the deal. Then the agreement would be put before the European Parliament, where it is easily expected to pass.

At that point, an implementation date would be set and the agreement would go into effect on what is called a provisional basis. This would represent the 90 per cent of the deal under the supranational control of the EU itself. It would then be up to each country’s parliament to ratify the accord, and the 10 per cent or so of the deal that is under national purview in each country would come into force only after each member state issued its own approval.

The working Belgian compromise appears to say that Belgium’s legislators would reserve the right at least for a year to reject even the 90 per cent of the deal that would go into effect provisionally after a European Parliament vote. It also confirms that accepting or rejecting the investor dispute court would be up to the 28 national parliamentary bodies of the EU, as part of their ratification vote on the 10 per cent of the deal entirely within each country’s jurisdiction.

It also discusses rules for allowing Belgium to erect protective tariffs or block agriculture imports of a single good if a “market imbalance” arises.

Canadian international trade lawyer Lawrence Herman urged Ottawa Wednesday to remove the investor-state dispute settlement provision from CETA in order to save the accord, saying it’s not a deal-breaker for businesses in Canada.

“There is no concern in the Canadian business community about risks of investing in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Ireland or the U.K. … There are significant Canadian investments in each of these countries and there’s never been an issue requiring investment protection.”

“CETA is too important for both sides to have it go down in flames over a particular part of the agreement that neither side considers essential,” Mr. Herman said. </s> EU leaders left Brussels at the end of a two-day summit with the main question of the day unresolved – the ratification of the EU-Canada trade deal.

Seven years after negotiations on a comprehensive economic and trade agreement (Ceta) between the EU and Canada was opened, there are now serious doubts about the future of the agreement.

As EU leaders arrived at the European Council building in Brussels on Friday morning for their second day of talks, 50km away in Namur, Belgium’s French-speaking regional parliament was meeting to discuss the ongoing impasse in the EU-Canada deal.

A week after the Wallonian government rejected the trade deal, the president of the parliament, Paul Magnette, told the parliament that his concerns still had not been adequately addressed. This included worries about the impact of the trade pact on Belgium’s agriculture industry and continuing concerns about an investor court which would give private companies the right to sue national governments in certain cases.

While all EU member states have signed off on the provisional application of the agreement, Belgium cannot ratify the agreement without the agreement of all five regional parliaments.

By 5pm, following negotiations with Canada’s trade minister Chrystia Freeland, Canada declared the deal dead.

“It is evident to me, for Canada, the European Union is not capable right now to have an international agreement, even with a country that has European values like Canada,” Ms Freeland said.

The decision by Canada to walk out of the talks presents a serious blow to the European Union and to its credibility as a trade partner. While some believed the move may be a negotiating position by Canada, which could pressurise the Wallonian parliament into agreeing to the pact at the weekend, Friday’s developments appeared to leave the deal on the precipice.

Ironically, the debacle unfolded as EU leaders were meeting to discuss the union’s future trade policy, an issue that had been scheduled on the agenda for months.

Following the discussion, EU leaders agreed to reform their existing trade defence measures – the tools it uses to put duties on imports – mandating EU trade ministers to return to the issue in November.

But within the EU strong differences remained between member states on the issue. While the European Commission has said it wants to toughen defence measures that the union can take against countries like China and the United States, more traditional supporters of free trade, including Ireland, are wary of any measures that could signal a protectionist stance.

Speaking after the summit, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that Ireland, as a small, open economy, was strongly in favour of trade agreements and was well aware of the benefits of trade. He described the EU-Canada trade deal as a “new-generation agreement that will remove tariffs between the European Union and Canada”, adding that he was confident the impasse could be resolved over the coming days.

But commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said that the European Union needed to react to threats to its industry. “I am against stupid, basic protectionism, but I cannot accept that the Americans and others are protecting their industry and that we are naive guys wanting to charm others,” he said.

In particular, the concerns of the European steel industry are weighing on the decision-making process. Earlier this week representatives of more than 50 European steel companies urged the European Commission to take a tougher stance against cheap imports amid accusations that China is dumping cheap steel on the European market.

With a December 11th deadline looming, when China is due to gain “market economy status” under WTO rules which would give China greater access to EU markets, EU member states will be forced to clarify their trade policy in the coming month.

As Britain, one of the strongest proponents of free trade around the EU table, prepares to leave the bloc, the European Union faces a tricky balance as it tries to convey that it is still a liberal, open economy, while at the same time show that it is listening to the concerns of its citizens at a time when free trade has never seemed so under attack. </s> Belgium’s regional parliament of Wallonia is meeting today amid a deepening impasse over the EU-Canada trade deal which threatens to overshadow the second day of the EU summit in Brussels.

The comprehensive economic and trade agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada has been under discussion for seven years, but its ratification was thrown into disarray by the rejection of the deal by Belgium’s Walloon parliament last week.

Frantic behind-the-scenes talks took place on Thursday night to try and broker a compromise between the Belgian regional parliament, the Belgian prime minister Charles Michel and the European Commission which would allow Wallonia to sign the deal.

But Wallonia’s president, Paul Magnette told a news conference on Thursday night that there were still concerns over agriculture and an investor court system contained within the deal which critics believe give too much power to investors to sue governments.

While all EU member states have signed off on the provisional application of the agreement, Belgium cannot ratify the agreement without the agreement of all five regional parliaments.

With Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau due to fly to Brussels next week for an EU -Canada summit on Thursday, pressure is on to secure full EU agreement by Monday night at the latest.

Arriving to the EU summit, Mr Michel said that the new proposals had been sent to the Walloon regional government, adding that the “moment of truth was close” for the EU-Canada deal. He added that he hoped a deal could be reached in the coming hours and days.

The controversy has opened up serious questions about the ability of the European Union to strike trade deals with third-party countries, an issue that could also have implications for Britain which hopes to agree a trade compact with the European Union when it leaves the bloc.

The EU-Canada trade deal, which the European Commission says will remove 98 per cent of tariffs on goods sold between the two regions and will open up greater opportunities for business, has been under negotiation for seven years.

The second day of an EU leaders’ summit is expected to be dominated by consideration of the EU’s trade policy, though the discussion is likely to be overshadowed by continuing uncertainty over the EU-Canada deal.

EU leaders will consider so-called trade defence instruments - economic tools that can be used to slap tariffs on imports. The European Commission wants to bolster the bloc’s trade defences by introducing tougher trade measures, but some free-trade countries are dubious about any move towards protectionism. In a communiqué released on the eve of the summit, the Commission said it had already been deploying existing trade defence instruments “to their full force,” but Jean-Claude Juncker said “we have reached the limit of what is feasible under the existing legislation.”

In particular, the Commission is looking to alter the existing “lesser duty rule” which caps the anti-dumping duties the EU can put on imports.

The troubles of the EU steel industry are informing the debate. Ahead of the summit more than 50 European steel companies wrote to the Commission, urging Brussels to toughen its trade measures, particularly against China which has been accused of flooding the market with cheap steel. The prospect that China will gain ‘market economy status’ in December under WTO rules which would reduce further barriers with the EU is also increasing pressure on Brussels to act.

Today’s discussion is also taking place against a wider background of public opposition to free trade. The issue, which has surfaced during the US presidential campaign, has made agreement on the EU-US trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) less likely. EU officials have conceded that an agreement is unlikely before the end of Barack Obama’s tenure as US president.

Speaking ahead of Friday’s discussions, a senior EU official said that, while trade brings benefits to citizens, it was important to communicate this to the public and ensure that European interests are also protected. “The solution is to regain the trust of European citizens but we also need to protect, defend legitimate European interests against unfair practices.” </s> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European leaders have signed Canada’s free trade deal with the EU in Brussels.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, known as CETA, was reached after seven years of negotiation.

Trudeau had initially expected to sign the deal in Brussels days ago, but the restive Belgian region of Wallonia nearly killed the deal because of its opposition to the pact’s investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.

The Prime Minister’s Office says Trudeau spoke on Friday with European Council president Donald Tusk, who confirmed the texts of the deal, along with a side agreement known as the Strategic Partnership Agreement, had been approved for signature.

The deal’s supporters say it will boost trade by billions through cuts in tariffs across a broad swath of sectors including agriculture, pharmaceuticals and the auto industry.

The prime minister’s trip to Brussels got off to a bit of a bumpy start, with a mechanical problem forcing his flight to return to Ottawa about 30 minutes after it took off Saturday night. After more than an hour on the ground the flight left again and continued on to Belgium without further incident.

Canada will have to pass implementing legislation, which will move through the Commons easily because the Liberals have a majority of the seats. The European Parliament will also need to approve it, and EU watchers say this should not be a problem because there are enough votes behind the deal.

About 95 per cent of the agreement, including tariff reductions and the lowering of other trade barriers, can take effect after the European Union and Canada pass it. Barring unforeseen events, this is expected to happen in early- to mid-2017.

One notable exception is the court, known as investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. The mechanism sets out formal arrangements for how businesses could sue governments when state decisions affect their investments. But it does not take effect right away and may never take effect.

A question mark has been hanging over this provision of the trade pact, and the wording of the Belgian deal reached this week to seal that country’s approval indicated that responsibility for ratifying the provision for the court will lie with the parliaments of the 28 European Union member countries.

A source with knowledge of the deal said on Friday that, in fact, the investor court will come into being only if no European parliament rejects it.

“For this system to come into place, all 28 member states have to ratify it – or at least not vote CETA down,” the source said. “That is a process that could take years.”

If one country votes to reject the investor court, it will not form part of the Canada-EU deal.

“It will be all or nothing.”

The decisions that parliaments across Europe will render on the court will take two to five years, the source said.

The Trudeau government has said many decisions are still to be made about the structure of the investor court, and it hopes that tweaks to the arrangement could satisfy all legislators across 28 states. In some countries, regional governments will also have the power to vote on the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.
The European Union calls an emergency two-day meeting about the planned EU-Canada free trade agreement, approved by all 28 EU member governments but held up by the "non" vote in Walloonia, one of Belgium's five sub-federal administrations.