TRANSCRIPT
Representatives of the European Commission were present on Friday in the Parliament's special visitor's gallery.
Taking a front row seat to Australian politics in action is European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas, before facing questions of his own.
He says he knows he has an important role to play.
“I understand that I'm the first political figure from Brussels visiting Australia after the Osaka breakdown if you like, and I understand that my role is not to either fuel the controversy of what actually happened in Osaka or cry over spilled milk.”
That breakdown came in Japan over a month ago when the EU's free trade offer, opening up the market of 446 million people, was rebuffed.
Trade Minister Don Farrell said the offer was not up to standard.
“Clearly a very disappointing result. We've been working on this for five years. At the end of the day the offer for Australia was not good enough.”
The Vice President of the European Commission says the two sides came close to an agreement.
“I do not want to reproduce the Osaka misunderstandings and I do not want to fuel the disappointment that inevitably resulted from events in Osaka. There are all sorts of opinions of what really happened. We had an important offer on the table of 1 billion Australian dollars in terms of access to our market. That could have been improved if discussions would have continued. We were close but it was not possible.”
Mr Schinas says the deal with Australia is still a target for the EU.
“I think that the FTA inevitably would come to seal the intensity and the depth of our strategic partnership. It was not possible in Osaka, but it will happen down the road.”
After five years of protracted talks, the quotas for beef, lamb and dairy are still in contention.
And Australia doesn't want to give up the right to brand prosecco, feta and parmesan because those names have been claimed by EU countries as geographically specific.
Shadow Trade Minister Kevin Hogan says the European side could have shown a bit more leniency in their negotiations.
“I could have a shot at the Australian government here but I won't. I'll have a shot actually at the Europeans. I think that they have shown a bad attitude and they haven't given enough here.”
Mr Hogan says that the disagreement will prove to be a significant pushback for the trade deal.
“The timing I am getting now is this is probably off the table for 18 months to two years. But that being said, they're a rich continent, there's hundreds of millions of consumers over there. We want to do a deal with them.”
That anticipated hiatus is partly due to the upcoming EU elections.
There's been a rise by right-wing populist parties across Europe.
Right wing nationalist Geert Wilders' triumph in the Dutch elections comes following the rise of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the leader of another right wing populist party.
Vice President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas says that the EU's role is to mediate between the opposing views throughout the continent.
“Every European country, which is not (a) Member of the European Union wants to become (a) member of the European Union that says something about the appeal of our, of our union and of the historical if you like, necessity of reconciling a continent that was torn by wars, hate, in the last century.”
