European Union leaders held out hope of rescuing the EU’s free-trade agreement with Canada after objections by a Belgian region sparked doubts about the bloc’s future and pushed the issue to the top of its agenda. EU government heads aim on Friday to address concerns in Belgium’s French-speaking southern region of Wallonia about the bloc’s first commercial accord with a fellow member of the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries. The pact needs the support of all the EU’s governments as well as the European Parliament to take provisional effect in 2017. “Wallonia is prepared to listen,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters in Brussels at the start of the second and final day of an EU summit. “We are ready also to probably decide on some interpretations which hopefully will help Walloon politicians to have an agreement.” At stake is an accord known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, that the EU says would boost its economic output by about 12 billion euros ($13 billion) a year and expand EU-Canada trade by about a quarter. Beyond that, any collapse of CETA, which took five years to negotiate, would take the steam out of a series of separate free-trade talks that the bloc is pursuing with the U.S., Japan and other countries. EU Credibility The U.K.’s plan to leave the EU has hovered over the CETA-ratification drama because trade is a core European policy and the bloc’s push over many years to use its economic weight to open markets worldwide has been a central argument for the merits of membership. Should the EU falter in ratifying the deal with Canada, the bloc risks losing credibility both with global partners and with a host of its own trade-friendly member nations long allied on commercial matters with Britain. “Truly speaking the problem goes beyond CETA,” EU President Donald Tusk said on Thursday. “I’m afraid that it means that CETA could be our last free-trade agreement.” The accord would end 98 percent of tariffs on goods traded from the outset and 99 percent after seven years. Each side would dismantle all industrial tariffs and more than 90 percent of agricultural duties. Markets for services and public procurement would also be opened. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has signaled the EU’s raison d’etre would be in doubt should CETA falter during the ratification process. ‘Moment of Truth’ “If in a week or two we see that Europe is unable to sign a progressive trade agreement with a country like Canada, then with whom does Europe think it could do business in the years to come in this post-Brexit situation when there are many questions about Europe’s usefulness?” Trudeau said last week, according to Radio Canada International. Wallonia, which accounts for less than 1 percent of the EU’s population, wants CETA reopened to add safeguards. The stance is tying the hands of the Belgian federal government, which is in favor of CETA. Earlier this week, the Belgian bickering prevented EU trade ministers from taking the first step in the European ratification process of CETA by giving the green light to the deal. Instead, the ministers left it to EU government leaders to tackle. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters on Friday as he entered the summit that the EU would face a “moment of truth” in the hours to come. Room for compromise has been offered through a declaration that the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has been drafting to accompany the trade deal. “As for today, I really hope to walk away with a trade agreement with Canada,” Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas told reporters on Friday.