Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has called for an “alliance for the future” with the European Union in a speech to the European Parliament.
Carney told MEPs on Thursday that the response to “current geopolitical disruption” should “take on a new dimension”, the European Parliament informed.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said Europe and Canada were “always stronger when we work together”, and pointed to scope to deepen cooperation “from defence and trade to energy, education and research.”
Carney said Canada and Europe shared commitments including “the rule of law” and the defence of “human dignity, individual freedom, and democracy.”
He also argued that “mutual advantage is at the core of the case for a deeper partnership between Canada and Europe.”
Talk of Canada as an EU ‘associate member’
Carney referenced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the EU speech delivered in the Parliament on Wednesday, in which she announced “the opening of the door” to Canada becoming the EU’s first associate member.
He said Canada and Europe should work together across “strategic capabilities”, listing critical minerals, defence industrial capacity, artificial intelligence and computing, energy security, space, and payments.
Carney also spoke about possible Canadian participation in Erasmus+ — the EU’s education exchange programme — and the EU’s forthcoming research and innovation investment programme, as well as the creation of an integrated market for financial services.
He said he was “not proposing a third bloc” and described the goal as resilience so that “no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms.”
