Belgian talks on EU-Canada trade deal break up, to continue on Thursday

Reuters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian talks designed to end the deadlock over a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement ended on Wednesday without a breakthrough, but participants said they would resume on Thursday morning.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel worked with the heads of Belgium's regions and linguistic communities to produce a common text to allay their concerns.

"We made a lot of progress, but we are not there yet. We will continue tomorrow, but we are close to an agreement," said Oliver Paasch, the head of Belgium's 76,000-strong German-speaking community.

(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; writing by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by James Dalgleish)