“Building the closest partnership we have ever established”: a summit between the EU and Canada Thursday and Friday in Montreal

Canada and the European Union will elevate their partnership to a new level on Thursday and Friday in Montreal, even if Brussels should give up calling its partner an “associate member” of the EU in the face of reluctance from certain member states. The idea of ​​giving Canada this unprecedented status was put forward in mid-September by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, but caused a stir among the Twenty-Seven, with no EU treaty legally defining it.

At the request of Germany in particular, this concept should be replaced in the final declaration of the two-day summit by that of “ever closer association of Canada with the EU, short of membership,” diplomats indicated in Brussels on Wednesday. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney put the importance of the “precise name” given to this rapprochement into perspective on Tuesday: “What matters is the difference it will represent in the lives of Canadians.”

Ursula von der Leyen for her part used this term again on Wednesday, emphasizing in a statement that this summit would allow “to start discussing how to make Canada the first associate member of the EU”. “Our ambition is to build the closest partnership we have ever established with a non-European country. Tailor-made for Canada,” she added.

Beyond this semantic debate, the summit should allow Canada and the EU to extend their already close cooperation to other areas such as strategic minerals, digital trade, research or youth mobility. And above all to strengthen their ties in a world dominated by the United States and China. “The world has become more dangerous and more polarized. Faced with this reality, Canada and the European Union are joining forces (...) to build an ambitious new alliance,” declared Mark Carney in a recent press release.

“An alliance strong enough so that no one can dictate our choices,” he added, in an implicit reference to the United States of Donald Trump in particular, who described this rapprochement as “ridiculous” and went so far as to threaten the EU with breaking off trade.

This summit will start on Thursday with a speech by Ursula von der Leyen on EU-Canada relations at 3 p.m. (Paris time), before a round table with Mark Carney, the President of the European Council, António Costa, and representatives of the business world at 7 p.m. A dinner will close the first day of this summit in which nine European commissioners are participating.

The return of Donald Trump to the White House at the start of 2025 has already led to a rapprochement between Brussels and Ottawa illustrated by the participation of Canadians in a European aid program for the defense industry, or by the invitation of Mark Carney and some of his ministers to European meetings. The two partners have also been linked for ten years by a free trade agreement, the CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), which eliminates customs duties on 98% of the products exchanged.

Much criticized in particular by French breeders, it has however not yet been ratified by nine EU countries out of 27, including France. This summit should be an opportunity for Canada, entangled in a trade conflict with Washington which escalated this summer, and the EU, whose relations are also stormy with Donald Trump, to extend this partnership to many other areas. Strategic minerals, of which the Canadian subsoil abounds and of which European industry, dependent on China, has a vital need, are one of the main ones.

The summit could lead to an agreement allowing the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance Canadian mining projects. An agreement on digital commerce, allowing faster and cheaper online transactions, should also be unveiled on Friday, as well as strengthening cooperation on the regulation of artificial intelligence. Canada could also negotiate its accession to the European Galileo program, a satellite navigation system which offers an alternative to the American GPS system, and to Erasmus, a European youth mobility scheme which notably allows students to spend a semester abroad.