By Viktoria Dendrinou and Natalia Drozdiak 

BRUSSELS--The European Union held 11th-hour talks with Canada on Saturday in an effort to salvage their planned trade deal, which is hanging by a thread after the persistent refusal by a Belgian region to support the accord.

The so-called Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada, or CETA, had been on thin ice in recent weeks after protests by Wallonia, Belgium's French-speaking region, threatened to keep the country's leadership from supporting the deal.

While the Belgian federal government supports the trade pact, it still needs the backing of its five regional authorities before it can give its official approval.

Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, after hours of talks with Wallonia's leader and EU officials on Friday, said reaching a deal was impossible.

But on Saturday morning, she struck a more conciliatory tone following talks between her and European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

"We've finished negotiating a very good agreement, and Canada is ready to sign this agreement," Ms. Freeland said after the meeting. "Now the ball is in Europe's court. It's time for Europe to finish doing its job."

Mr. Schulz thanked Ms. Freeland for postponing her flight back to Canada to meet with him Saturday morning.

Mr. Schulz, who also met separately with Walloon Minister-President Paul Magnette on Saturday morning, said the problems on the table are "European ones and we have to solve it." Also at the meeting with Mr. Magnette were other officials from the European Commission, the bloc's executive body, which is leading the trade discussions for the EU.

"In my eyes, these aren't problems we can't resolve," he added.

At stake isn't only the deal with Canada but also the bloc's reputation as a credible trading partner and its ability to negotiate similar deals in the future, especially as talks with the U.S. on a trade and investment pact are faltering.

Failure to complete the CETA would be a huge blow to the bloc's trade policy, which is already suffering from weakening public and political support amid growing anti-globalization sentiment across the continent.

After a week of intense back-and-forth with the region's leadership and the European Commission, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of EU governments, Wallonia still refused to agree to a compromise, even after further safeguards were added to the text to ensure that concerns about not lowering the standard for public services, the environment and other sensitive areas were added.

Chief among its remaining concerns is a controversial court system to settle investment disputes, which critics say would give greater powers to large multinationals to sue EU governments.

"We still have some little difficulties on the European side, we cannot hide that," Mr. Magnette said. He added that they would work to find solutions so that the European Union has the "highest standards in the world" when it negotiates its agreements with third countries.

"I think that's worth the effort and a little bit more time," he said.

The EU and Canada had been hoping to sign CETA at a summit in Brussels next week that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to attend. Top EU officials said the summit wouldn't take place if the EU hadn't gotten Wallonia on board by then.

On Saturday Ms. Freeland said she still hoped she would be able to return in the coming days with Mr. Trudeau to sign the agreement with Europe as planned.

Write to Viktoria Dendrinou at viktoria.dendrinou@wsj.com and Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 22, 2016 08:24 ET (12:24 GMT)