Canada – EU

Canada-EU relations
Canada and the EU have a deep and ever‑growing strategic partnership. Our relationship is based on shared values, robust commercial ties, and extensive institutional cooperation. It is also the EU’s oldest formal relationship with any industrialized country, dating back to 1959 when we signed the Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, and continues to evolve as we work together on global challenges and opportunities.
Canada is one of the EU’s official Strategic Partners and our present‑day relations with the EU are framed by two agreements. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) governs our economic relations. It has created significant new commercial opportunities for Canadian and EU businesses in trade and investment and forged closer links between our economies since its provisional entry into force in September 2017.
The Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) was signed at the same time as CETA and sets the framework for our political, foreign policy, and security relationship. It has been provisionally applied since April 2017. This agreement provides for regular bilateral dialogues in areas such as security and defence, development, climate change, environment, clean energy, the green and digital transitions, and public health. Under the SPA, Canadian and EU senior officials regularly take stock of the relationship in the Canada‑EU Joint Cooperation Committee and provide recommendations on areas of cooperation to the Canada‑EU Joint Ministerial Committee.
Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
The European Union (EU) is one of the largest economies in the world and Canada’s second-largest trading partner. CETA presents Canadian businesses with preferential access and excellent opportunities for growth in the EU.
The Agreement will come into full effect when all EU Member States have completed the ratification process. Until then, provisional application of CETA will continue and remain accessible to Canadian and EU business alike.
Policy Series on the Canada-EU Relationship
(Policy) On June 23, 2025, at the Canada-European Union Summit in Brussels, Prime Minister Mark Carney reiterated his view that Canada is “the most European of non-European countries.” That day, Canada and the EU signed an enhanced Strategic Partnership and a new Security and Defence Partnership. In January, 2026, when Carney unfurled his case for a concerted, middle-power response to the seismic, hegemonic shift in the postwar global order, he delivered it in Davos. On May 4, 2026, in Yerevan, Carney was the first non-European head of government to attend the European Political Community Summit. “It is my strong personal view that the international order will be rebuilt,” he said, “but it will be rebuilt out of Europe.” In response to Donald Trump’s trade, security, and rhetorical alienation of both parties, the Canada-EU relationship is becoming closer. Welcome to our Policy package of Canada-EU insight, analysis, and opinion. …

EU-Canada summit
29-30 October 2026

15 October
As Americans play ‘power game,’ draft document shows Canada-EU response
(The Canadian Press) Canada and the European Union are laying out concrete steps to strengthen ties around digital security and defence as well as critical resources and a would-be fleet of Canadian-made water bombers, according to a draft joint statement ahead of a summit at month’s end.
The document, seen by The Canadian Press, states that Ottawa and Brussels aim to let Canadian companies bid on cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure contracts typically reserved for European companies in another push away from dependence on the United States.
Dubbed an “alliance for the future,” the renewed partnership also launches plans for Canada to join in Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system and wraps up a deal to facilitate European investment in Canadian critical minerals, according to the leaked statement.
It also heralds the joint purchase of 50 Canadian-made De Havilland water bombers it claims will be ready for use in fighting wildfires in 2030.
More broadly, the statement showcases Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ongoing effort to shore up Continental links in areas ranging from trade to education and the military, as Canada and the European Union try to guard against a less reliable America and take up the flag of the rules-based international order.

14 October
U.S. midterms threaten to eclipse Canada-Europe deal in perfect storm
Whatever deal is announced between Canada and Europe comes at an important moment ahead of the vote that could tip the balance of power enough to disrupt the U.S. president’s agenda.
(Hill Times)

23 September
Ian Bremmer: Can Mark Carney build a new middle power alliance?
(GZERO media) Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney went to France over the weekend, but he didn’t have to go far: meeting French President Emmanuel Macron on the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, just south of Newfoundland. The optics of the meeting—on a French territory that shows Europe is not quite as far from Canada as one might expect—reinforce Carney’s recent push to build a closer alliance with the European Union.
It began with the news that Canada was pursuing associate member status. Carney then flew to Strasbourg, where he delivered a sequel to his well-received Davos speech, this time to the European Parliament. In it, he invoked Goethe, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the Battle of Vimy Ridge (a key battle for both the course of World War I and the development of Canadian national identity) in making the case that Canada and Europe must work together to preserve their sovereignty in the face of threats from the United States. In his words, Carney isn’t interested in “a third bloc in order to become a great-power rival—only with better manners” but “resilience so no one, no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.” …
Carney is faced with an existential economic threat from the Trump administration, but he has the political capital to absorb this short-term pain while building a long-term hedge against the United States. Carney knows that he will outlast Trump—who only has a little over two years left in his term and has passed the peak of his global influence—so he’s more prepared to build for what comes next.
But Carney’s bid for associate membership in the European Union faces real challenges. First, there’s not much clarity over how much integration the new associate member classification will entail and the process by which EU member states will approve of it. Canada and the EU haven’t even managed to fully ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which has been provisionally in place since 2017 but is still lacking ten member states’ approval. As a result, the notion that each EU country will greet Canada with open arms is far-fetched.
Second, there’s an inherent tension in the EU’s interest in expanding its power, and Canada’s interest in avoiding getting too integrated, especially as the EU faces headwinds from the increasing popularity of Euroskeptic parties like the AfD in Germany and the National Rally in France. Carney doesn’t want to get bogged down in a yearslong accession process or tie Canada inextricably to a bloc that could become mired in gridlock if far-right parties take charge of Europe’s most powerful economies. He wants to more closely collaborate with the European Union on key areas of strategic resilience, from defense production to critical minerals, without full integration. And most importantly, he wants to involve other like-minded countries, like the United Kingdom and Australia, in that process.
… So, it’s not really associate membership that Carney is after (which was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s formulation, not Canada’s) but something broader and more flexible: an “alliance for the future.” And he already has some supporters in the countries he hopes to lure into this alliance, like new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who are fellow left-of-center, pro-multilateral leaders of middle powers. But Burnham and Albanese lack Carney’s political capital—with Burnham’s Labour surging but still trying to fend off Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, and Albanese facing plummeting approval ratings. Both leaders can be counted on for now, but as more conservative and nationalist parties gain strength, how long will they be there for?
Andrew Caddell: A memorandum of our understanding on ‘associate’ status with the EU
A note to Canadian to clarify misconceptions pertaining to the European Commission president’s invitation for Canada to have ‘associate European Union membership.’

17 September

Prime Minister Carney delivers an address to the European Parliament

What we know about the proposed partnership between Canada and the EU
Carney speech contained key pieces of his vision for the partnership, but much remains uncertain
Carney wants Canada to join Europe’s Erasmus+ program.
PM signalled interest in Europe’s flagship exchange program in speech to EU
(CBC) … While many details of the suggested new partnership are left to be ironed out — like what it would mean to be the EU’s first “associate member” — Carney specifically pitched Canadian involvement in Erasmus+ [a popular European exchange program] when he delivered a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday.
“Canadian membership of Erasmus+ would give your students and ours more opportunity to learn at some of the world’s top universities, to broaden their horizons and to build those lasting ties that will sustain our alliance for the future,” Carney said.
He also expressed interest in getting involved in the next iteration of Horizon, Europe’s research and innovation funding program in which Canada already participates. The current Horizon framework for 2021-2027 has over $140 billion in funding.
… First established in 1987 as Erasmus, the flagship EU program allows people to study and train at institutions across Europe for up to a year.
The initial program focused on university exchanges, but has since expanded to include exchanges for work experience, apprenticeships and sport.

16 September
EU’s von der Leyen wants Canada to become bloc’s first associate member
By Julia Payne and Ingrid Melander
Push for deeper ties as both face pressure from Trump and China
EU lawmakers applaud as von der Leyen and Carney embrace
Canada also calls for closer ties
Associate membership would be new and raises questions
(Reuters) – European Commission President Ursula ​von der Leyen said on Wednesday she wanted to open the door to Canada becoming the EU’s first “associate member” in a push to ‌forge new links among allies in “an openly hostile world”.
New partnerships were needed “in the cold fragility of today’s world,” von der Leyen told the assembly in Strasbourg, without detailing what associate ​membership would mean.
The 27-nation bloc faces war at its borders, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both the EU and Canada have also been facing ​stiff rivalry on trade and other issues from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and from an increasingly assertive China.
“I said we must urgently reimagine our partnerships. So, I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be ​the first associate member of the EU,” von der Leyen said.

Thanks, Trump: Why Canada may become the European Union’s first ever ‘associate member’
Stewart Prest, Lecturer, Political Science, University of British Columbia
(The Conversation) It’s a proposal that manages to be both absurd and eminently logical, depending on how you frame it. Geographically, Canada remains firmly affixed to North America, sharing a border with its increasingly unpredictable neighbour to the south, the United States.
… There are many unanswered questions about Canada becoming an associate member of the EU, and some real risks associated with the idea as well. European Union membership is not without its drawbacks, as Brexit clearly demonstrated just a decade ago.
The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, and while that was an economically problematic decision, it was not without its logical arguments in favour. EU membership remains controversial because pooling sovereignty requires sacrifice: nations trade away unilateral control in exchange for shared, broader gains.
This is not a minor point. The loss of control over decision-making is, in no small measure, what Canada is objecting to in trade negotiations with the U.S. While it’s far too early to know what goes into associate membership, Carney will need to be careful to ensure steps are taken to prevent Canadian populists from finding a new distant target in Brussels.
Harmonizing policy with European allies would also likely become a further barrier to trade with the U.S. While it’s clear Canada can no longer rely on a trusting relationship with its southern neighbour, the two countries will remained joined at the hip, and the U.S. will likely remain Canada’s biggest trading partner as a function not only of geography, but decades of investment and policy. …

Is EU’s offer to Canada a blueprint for Britain – or a reminder it is out in the cold?
Lisa O’Carroll, Senior correspondent
(The Guardian) Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has been advocating closer alignment with “middle powers” since January in the face of recklessness in Washington.
To a standing ovation at her State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted to open the door to Canada becoming the EU’s first “associate member” in a push to forge new ⁠links among allies in “an openly hostile world”.
The European Commission president’s deal could be seen as an “earthquake” offer said Joël Reland, of UK in a Changing Europe, though it remains “deliciously vague”. …
The last time associate membership of the EU was mooted was in relation to Ukraine as an off-the-books novel way of bringing Kyiv closer to the bloc without become a fully fledged member state.

Canada and EU move toward closer ties,
EU to create an “associate” program for Canada
(GZERO media) The bloc is looking to deepen ties with the Great White North as both sides adjust to unprecedented hostility from their traditional main ally, the US. The Trump administration has threatened Canada’s sovereignty, pulled back support for NATO, demanded control of Greenland, and waged trade wars against both Ottawa and Brussels. Canada’s PM, Mark Carney, has taken a pugnacious “elbows up” approach to dealing with Trump, and called on the world’s “middle powers” to unite. Canadians overwhelmingly support closer ties with Europe, and both sides are looking for a long-term hedge against a suddenly unreliable US. But Brussels will need to tread carefully: offering too many benefits to Canada could dilute the meaning of real EU membership, rankle other European candidates waiting to formally join the bloc, or provoke Trump into even more antagonistic actions.
E.U. Talks of Making Canada First ‘Associate Member’ as U.S. Ties Weaken
Canada and the European Union have been confronting an increasingly challenging relationship with the United States under President Trump.

4 May
Prime Minister Carney strengthens trade and security partnerships with European nations
Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, concluded his first official visit to Armenia. He attended the 8th European Political Community Summit in Yerevan, marking the first time a non-European leader joined the Summit.
At the Summit, Prime Minister Carney held bilateral meetings with the leaders of Armenia, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. During these meetings, the Prime Minister positioned Canada as a premier destination for global capital and investment – including in critical minerals, energy, defence, and advanced technologies. These efforts will attract new investment into Canadian companies and projects, unlocking new opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses.
The meetings also focused on reinforcing collective security and transatlantic defence readiness, and advancing support for Ukraine. To that end, Prime Minister Carney announced Canada’s new contribution of approximately $270 million (US$200 million) toward critical military capabilities sourced from the NATO Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL).
Leaders Gather In Yerevan For European Summit
(RFE/RL) Leaders from throughout the EU and other countries met in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on May 4 for the the eighth summit of the European Political Community

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