Berlusconi schuift besluit over handelsakkoord met Korea door naar Europese Top (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign ministers have failed to reach an agreement on the bloc's free trade agreement with South Korea, although reports suggest Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will give the final go-ahead later this week.
After brief discussion on Monday (13 September), the Belgian EU presidency swiftly moved the topic onto the agenda of an EU leaders' summit to be held in Brussels this Thursday, following an Italian request for more time to consider the issue.
The vast majority of EU states back the free trade deal, but Italy, concerned that a reduction of trade barriers will harm its small car manufacturer Fiat, has called for the agreement's implementation to be delayed by six months.
"The efforts that the Belgian EU presidency has been undertaking to get unanimity are not yet crowned with a result," Belgian foreign minister Steven Vanackere told journalists after the meeting on Monday.
Other member states are growing increasingly frustrated however, seeing the free trade deal as an increasingly important way of pulling the EU out of its current economic quagmire of low growth and government deficits.
"It's not only about a lot of money. It's about market share," one EU diplomat told this website on condition of anonymity. "Italy may not have much to gain but the rest of us have a lot to lose."
European companies and government are keenly aware of the renewed US efforts to kickstart its own trade agreement with South Korea, after the European Commission successfully initialed Europe's equivalent last October.
But despite hopes that the landmark deal would receive political approval from member states on Monday, national politics appear to have pushed the topic to later in the week.
"Mr Berlusconi wants to agree the deal with a flourish. Its a political topic in Italy," an EU diplomat said. The embattled Italian leader is apparently keen to give his final support when he visits Brussels this Thursday, having first squeezed a few symbolic concessions out of his peers.
The addition of a further agenda item to Thursday's meeting is unlikely to please many, with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy i specifically calling the meeting to discuss the EU's relations with its strategic partners across the globe.
The former Belgian prime minister is also set to present his interim report on economic governance at the summit, with economic issues absorbing the majority of his time since taking up the new Lisbon Treaty position in January.
A political agreement on the Korean deal on Thursday would allow EU and South Korean leaders to formally adopt it at a bilateral summit with the Asian country in Brussels on 6 October.
The commission estimates the agreement will open up new trade opportunities in goods and services worth €19.1 billion for the EU and €12.8 billion for South Korea.
Approval would see the scrapping of import barriers for South Korean cars into the EU in either three years (for high and medium-powered vehicles) or five years (small cars) time, the source of Italy's concern.