Dr. Michael de Boeck:

If the Senator permits, I will limit myself to the second part of the question. I am not very comfortable with or knowledgeable about the analogy to the end of slavery.

I will comment on the enforcement and changes on the regulatory margin under CETA. As we know, CETA is one of the new generation investment treaties that has been concluded by the EU. One of the changes that was implemented is that there is a much more qualified regulatory margin. There is a very explicit reference to the right for a state to regulate. That this was extremely important was also recognised by the European Court of Justice, ECJ, in its opinion on the compatibility of the CETA agreement with EU treaties, which was Opinion 1/17. This opinion also stated that if this regulatory margin was lacking, the agreement would not be compatible with EU law because it is an absolute requirement of a democratic - of course, the EU cannot say sovereign - rule of law nation.