Belgium’s regional governments have granted a temporary stay of execution to the European Commission’s trade policy by agreeing at the 11th-hour to support a landmark EU deal with Canada.

Three Belgian regions — most significantly French-speaking Wallonia — have threatened to veto the EU-Canada trade accord over the past two weeks, severely undermining the credibility of the Commission in conducting trade negotiations on behalf of the 28-country bloc.

Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel announced on Thursday that days of marathon talks between the federal government and regional leaders had finally paid dividends and that it would be possible to win backing for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement from the rebel assemblies: Wallonia, Wallonia-Brussels and Brussels.

In their most significant demand to secure a deal, the Belgians want the European Court of Justice to test the legality of the court system in CETA through which foreign investors can sue governments.

“The commitment taken by my colleagues and minister-presidents of the regional governments is, by tomorrow midnight at the latest, to sign off on the text.” Michel said in the Belgian federal parliament.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström hailed “white smoke.” Paul Magnette, minister president of Wallonia, tweeted: “Victory. Thanks to you, we have obtained major gains for Walloons and Europeans.”

In order to break the internal impasse, the Belgians have drawn up a series of clauses to add to the CETA deal to safeguard farmers and ensure Belgium’s continued right to veto at least parts of the deal in future.

Michel also underlined that there would be guarantees on the selection process and code of conduct for judges hired by the investors’ tribunal system.

EU ambassadors will meet Thursday to determine whether the other 27 member countries can agree to those additions.  Diplomats do not expect any major problems because the Commission has been aware of the content of the Belgian declaration over the period of its negotiation.

If all goes smoothly, the agreement will then clear the way for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to travel to Brussels for a summit to sign the deal.

Not an end to the trade crisis

A green light from Belgium will allow the EU member countries to bring CETA into force on a provisional basis at the beginning of next year.

But that will not draw a close to the EU’s fears about the survival of trade policy. The EU’s national and regional parliaments will still insist that they have the right to retrospectively cancel the entire agreement once it is in force, even if only one of them raises objections.

In addition to this worry, the debacle over Belgian ratification has raised deeper systemic questions about the survival prospects of EU trade policy. The European Commission will have to decide whether it can continue to be taken seriously as a partner in international trade talks if it ratifies deals as “mixed agreements” — requiring ratification by the EU’s 38 national and regional parliaments.

“Recent uncertainties on who decides what are blurring its credibility. I think the European Commission was wrong to accept national ratification of trade deals like CETA, which are an EU competence,” former WTO chief Pascal Lamy told POLITICO. “The European Parliament, a democratically elected body, and the Commission should be tougher and refuse in the future so-called ‘mixed’ agreements.”

The text of the Belgian agreement for the most part simply added clarity and interpretation to several aspects of CETA.

It mapped out that the deal would not impinge on EU laws in relation to genetically modified goods and would not affect the EU’s “precautionary principle” in regulation — widely seen as more stringent than U.S. regulatory methodologies.

The text also noted that the authorities would carry out regular checks on the socio-economic and environmental effects of the deal. It noted that Belgium would retain the veto-right to prevent the “definitive” implementation of CETA, but stopped short of saying this could annul provisional application.

The Belgian agreement also stated that the country would reserve the right to draw up a safeguard mechanism to protect farmers in case of “market turbulence.” The trigger points for this would be agreed at the European level. Still, such systems do exist in the EU to protect threatened sectors such as dairy.

“We hope to be able to finalize the text with member states in the coming hours and simultaneously we have taken the decision to send the documents to our parliaments this afternoon,” Michel said.