The European Commission has negotiated the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with a view to establishing a state of the art and privileged economic relationship with Canada. Canada is a strategic partner of the European Union with whom we share a history based on common values and interests, and with whom we also wish to define a positive forward-looking relationship for the future. To this end, the EU and Canada have reached an ambitious agreement, which will open up new opportunities for trade and investment for economic actors on both sides of the Atlantic. Both sides have also underlined through this agreement the importance of economic activity taking place within a framework of clear and transparent regulation defined by public authorities, and that they consider the right to regulate in the public interest within their territories as a basic underlying principle of the Agreement.